This combination photo provided November 16, 2015 by the NYU Langone Medical Center shows face transplant patient Patrick Hardison before(L) and after his surgery.
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On August 14, surgeons at NY University Langone Medical Center performed the most complex face transplant ever tried.
Hardison, a husband and father of four, had lived with a severely disfigured face and head since September 5, 2001, when he entered a burning house in search of a missing woman. While one team removed the donor’s entire scalp, eyelids, ears, veins, skin down to the neck, and forehead tissue, another team was removing the injured tissue from recipient’s face.
A church acquaintance wrote to Dr. Rodriguez, who had performed a 2012 face transplant in Maryland.
Hardison can now blink and close his eyes while sleeping, which doctors said were key steps in preventing him from getting blind.
The stress became too much for him and his wife, and despite having two more children after the surgery, Hardison and his wife divorced. There is still a tough time ahead involving extensive rehabilitation and the possibility that his body may reject the transplant.
The surgery, which concluded on August 15, took 26 hours and involved more than 100 doctors and nurses.
In the meantime, Hardison will undergo more surgeries to flawless his face as the swelling goes down.
Rodebaugh’s mother Nancy Millar said it was important to her to honor David’s decision to donate his organs so “something good could come from something so tragic”. It was David P. Rodebaugh, 26, an artist and bicyclist who died in a bicycling accident in Brooklyn.
His medication will be slowly decreased, and in January-February he is expected to undergo a further procedure to tailor the tissue around his eyes and lips, Rodriguez said.
It’s been three months since the procedure and Hardison is reportedly recovering well.
Mr Hardison says he is deeply grateful to his donor and the surgical team. “And when he’s ready for it to happen, I know he’s got an angel out there for me somewhere…Hopefully that day comes and I hope that family’s strong because I can not imagine losing somebody at a young age and then having to be asked to give what they’re asking to give”.
It’s now been 91 days since the surgery, and Hardison has no signs of rejection, Rodriguez said. The transplant includes the scalp, ears, ear canals, bone from the chin and cheeks, and a new nose. “Why this transplant is different than the last transplant I performed, which was also extensive, is that it is uniquely extensive…” Hardison’s skull was also fitted with bone segments to maintain his new face’s stability.
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Medical staff used advanced modeling and 3D-printed patient-specific cutting guides designed from the recipient’s and the donor’s CT scans to provide the most precise “snap-fit” of the skeleton.
