Firefighter suffers third-degree burns – this is him 7 years later

Patrick Hardison received devastating injuries in a house fire as he attempted to rescue a woman he believed to be trapped in the blaze.

This brave man was left with third-degree burns to his entire face and scalp – for years he wore a baseball cap, sunglasses, and prosthetic ears in public.

Patrick recalled children running away when they saw him, but his life changed again in 2015 when he underwent the most extensive face transplant ever.

As per reports, Hardison had a 50/50 chance of surviving the face transplant. However, the surgery – which took 26 hours and more than 100 people working in two teams – was a success. Today, Patrick Hardison is living life alongside his beloved wife and children.

Here’s all you need to know about his incredible story – and what Patrick looks like today.

Today, we have so much knowledge about the human body. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, and all others in the field of medicine are true heroes, doing everything they can to help people get better. Moreover, it’s mind-blowing what can be done to save a life these days. Take for example, surgeons who can replace a heart or a kidney

Patrick Hardison – face transplant

With the knowledge experts have today, it’s even possible to change an entire face for people in need. Face transplants have been performed since 2005, when Isabelle Dinoire became the first-ever person to receive one. In 2015, another very special face transplant was performed in the US, when Patrick Hardison became the first American to undergo the procedure.

Like any other loving father, Patrick attended his children’s sporting activities, and liked spending time with his family. The volunteer fireman always endeavored to help his community in any way he could.

One day in 2001, though, the lives of he and his family would change forever.

Patrick was called out to a house fire, where he sustained extensive facial burns to his upper torso, head, and neck. The blaze also claimed his ears, lips, most of his eyelid tissue, and most of his nose.

It seemed as though he was destined to face a life of children running away from him and others parents whispering and pointing. But in 2015, the most extensive face transplant ever performed became a reality.

Patrick had only a 50/50 chance of surviving the procedure, such was its complexity. Today, he has an entirely new face – and looks nothing short of incredible. Here’s all you need to know about the mind-blowing story of Patrick Hardison.

Patrick Hardison from Mississippi worked as a volunteer firefighter earlier on in his life. In 2001, he responded to a house fire when a horrible accident occurred.

Disfiguring injuries in a house fire

Hardison was inside a burning home when it collapsed on top of him

[My mask] was melting to my face,” Hardison said. “My hose [was] already melted.”

He managed to escape through a window, but his head and upper body were already on fire, and Patrick suffered horrific injuries.

“For somebody who does what we do for a living, I’ve never seen anybody burned that bad that was still alive,” friend and first responder Jimmy Neal recalled of seeing Hardison after the accident.

The father had third-degree burns on his entire face and scalp. In addition, he sustained facial burns to his head, neck, and upper torso. The fire also claimed his ears, lips, most of his nose, and even most of his eyelid tissue.

“I didn’t actually see myself until probably November. I got injured in September,” Hardison told Fox News. “They had cut a little pinhole in one of my eyelids because they had everything covered, skin graft. I looked in the mirror and all I could do, I said, ‘this is it? I can’t do this,’” he recalled.

A new life awaited Hardison. He underwent 71 surgeries and several other procedures, but he was still unable to form normal facial expressions. Patrick couldn’t eat or laugh without feeling pain, and he couldn’t even blink or close his eyes.

Surgeons were eventually able to put together flaps of skin to protect his vision. Still, he remained at risk of slowly but surely going blind.

As the years went by, Patrick had difficulties accepting his appearance. Just being with his children – or by himself, for that matter – became a nightmare. People pointed at him, and the children were scared.

Lost hope of living an ordinary life

Patrick always wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, as well as specially designed prosthetics that replaced his ears.

“I had kids. It was just a tough time. I never got a day off from the injury. When you walk out in public, it was daily. And, you know, it’s just so — there’s no way to explain everything,” he said.

“You go to the ball field, you have to prepare yourself for the kid that goes running off screaming.”

For years, Patrick battled pain and staring from people when walking down the street. He was losing all hope of living an ordinary life, and started to think that his disfigured appearance was one he would be cursed with forever

But as time went by, surgeons developed new methods for face transplants. Finally, in 2005, Isabelle Dinoire became the first-ever person to have a face transplant. Hardison, though, had given up hope of getting the help he desperately wanted.

Then, one day, a friend stumbled across Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez, who worked at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Rodriquez had performed a face transplant before, and so the search began to find Patrick a donor.

After a year, Hardison’s search had turned up just two potential donors. The first one was a good match – but the tissue profile was not.

Patrick Hardison – face donor David Rodebaugh

The second candidate looked very promising. However, the man’s family withdrew him from consideration.

Hardison was preparing to accept that he might never get a face transplant. Then, out of the blue, another potential donor came to light. LiveOnNY, a nonprofit that coordinates organ donations in the New York area, had found a match. The face belonged to David Rodebaugh a 26-year-old who had sustained a massive head injury in a bike accident and had been declared brain dead.

After David passed away, his mother, Nancy Millar, decided to donate her son’s organs, including liver, heart, and kidneys. More important, she decided to also donate his face.

“I said, ‘You better save his face. He has the face of a porcelain doll.’ And he’s a donor — we had talked about it,” Millar told People.

She didn’t hesitate for a second when she heard about Patrick and the possibility of him getting a face transplant. For her, it was a chance for David to live on.