Hardison was finally put in touch with Dr. Rodriguez of NYU and was then set to be the first First Responder to undergo a facial transplant.
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Officials at NY University’s Langone Medical Center revealed that the 26-hour facial transplant was performed by doctors at the hospital in August.
In March, Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron University Hospital said it had carried out what it called the world’s most complex face transplant, reconstructing two thirds of the lower face of a 45-year-old man terribly disfigured by disease. He was given the semblance of a face with flesh transferred from his thighs, but in the years leading up to his surgery at Langone he underwent 71 operations at a rate of seven a year and became dependent on painkillers, wrecking his family life.
The first-of-its-kind surgery in the NY state in August on a volunteer firefighter, Patrick Hardison, lasted for 26 hours and involved a team of more than 100 physicians, nurses, technical and support staff. He had died of injuries from a biking accident on a Brooklyn street.
Hardison was burned September 5, 2001, in Senatobia in northwestern Mississippi.
He lost his eyelids, ears, lips, most of his nose as well as his hair including his eyebrows.
Aside from that, he can now blink and completely close his eyes as he was also given new eyelids and muscles for blinking.
NYU Langone met the $850,000 to $1 million cost of Hardison’s preparatory, surgical and rehabilitative care, similar to the cost of a liver transplant, said Rodriguez.
Now, just three months removed from surgery, he is quickly returning to the routines of daily life independently. “The same goes with the face”, Mr Rodriguez told a news conference in NY earlier on Monday.
Simultaneous surgeries took place, Rodriguez said, with Hardison on one operating table while Rodebaugh was on the other.
Meanwhile, Rodebaugh’s mother who wanted to see her son’s face on its new body, thought she might get one more glimpse of him, but his face was long gone.
The transplant extended from Mr Rodebaugh’s collarbones in front all the way to the back of his head leaving only a tiny patch of Mr Hardison’s original hair.
“This procedure is here to stay”, he said. Hardison’s new face, particularly his new lips and ears, were robust with colour, indicating circulation had been restored.
Rodriguez said the NY operation would make future transplants safer and with better results, and proved that the entire scalp can be transplanted with the face.
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“I used to get stared at all the time, but now I’m just an average guy”, he said.
