The disaster left his face completely disfigured and turned around his life as he lost his eye lids, ears, lips, a major part of his nose, and facial hair.
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He received a new scalp, face, a pair of ears and ear canals.
The donor was David Rodebaugh, a 26-year-old artist and a bike mechanic. Dr. Eduardo Rodiguez, the surgeon who led a 150 member medical team that carried out the procedure, stated that movement of the eyes and the ability to blink and get a few shut eye were the key steps to save the blue eyes of Patrick from blindness that was looking almost inevitable earlier.
As reported in Reuters, the 26-hour surgery was performed by a 150-person medical team (!) from NY University Langone Medical Center.
At the time, the team at the NYU Langone Medical Center said the procedure had a 50:50 chance of working.
Over two dozen face transplants have been performed till date but this is the most extensive face transplant in history. 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.
Within the final hours of surgery, Hardison’s new face, particularly his new lips and ears, were filled with colour, indicating circulation had been restored.
Rodebaugh was the flawless match for Hardison as they shared a similar complexion, weight and size and had the same blood type.
Mr Hardison was burned in 2001, in Senatobia. “The amount of tissue that was transplanted from Patrick’s face had not been transplanted before”, Rodriguez said.
The 41-year-old told the NY magazine: “My kids ran screaming and crying when they saw me”. “The same goes with the face”, Dr Rodriguez said following a news conference in NY.
Simultaneous surgeries took place, Rodriguez said, with Hardison on one operating table while Rodebaugh was on the other.
Firefighter Travis McDonald just returned from New York- a visit he’ll never forget.
His mother gave permission to use his face, noting that Rodebaugh had always wanted to be a firefighter, said LiveOnNY president Helen Irving. He will have to continuing taking medications to prevent his body from rejecting the transplant.
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This was the third prospective face donor Hardison had considered: the first one belonged to a Hispanic man, the second to a woman.
