Firefighter gets the most extensive face transplant

Firefighters do selfless acts every day. They put their lives on the line to save other people, without even thinking twice. Though they are not paid enough as they should be, they continue with what they do without hesitation. Patrick Hardison was one of them. 

Back in 2001, he was a volunteer firefighter in New York when a call about a fire came in. Once they were in the site, Patrick got a desperate call. 

A house was in flames, with a woman trapped inside. Hardison arrived on the scene and raced inside, moments before the roof suddenly collapsed. His helmet was knocked off, and he felt his mask melting. He closed his eyes and jumped out the window. 

Hardison lost his eyelids, ears, lips and most of his nose, as well as his hair, because of that fire. He also had disfiguring third-degree burns across his entire face, head, neck and upper torso. His skin was so badly damaged that he was not even able to close his eyes completely. 




Patrick Hardison received the world's most extensive face transplant, New York University Langone Medical Center said on Monday. 

Patrick Hardiman was in surgery for 26 hours and the facial tissue was donated by David Rodebaugh, who was fatally injured in a cycling accident. His family donated his liver, kidneys, and both eyes to help other patients. 

Rodebaugh died in July when he crashed and hit his head while riding in Brooklyn. He was 26 -- virtually the same age as Hardison was when he was injured. 

He received a full scalp and face, including ears, nose, lips and upper and lower eyelids. 

Now, for the first time since that raging fire in Senatobia, Mississippi in 2001, Hardison can blink and even sleep with his eyes closed - key steps to sparing his blue eyes from blindness that previously seemed all but inevitable. 

The transplant operation, which took place Aug. 14, was funded by a grant from NYU Langone. The hospital estimates it cost between $850,000 and $1 million. 

Proof of the surgery's success was obvious after a medical team took Hardison shopping for new clothes at Macy's this fall, and no one in the store gave him a second look. 
SOURCE:http://www.bryqe.com/2015/12/firefighter-gets-extensive-face-transplant.html