Firefighters risk their lives everyday when they selflessly run into burning buildings to save complete strangers. For Patrick Hardison, running into burning buildings was just part of the job.
However, in 2001, the then 41-year-old firefighter from Mississippi suffered horrific burns when a burning roof collapsed on him, and melted through his face mask.
After the fire, doctors used skin from his leg to cover her face and head, but the burns were so bad that he lost his ears, lips, most of his nose, and pretty much all of his eyelids. Despite the constant stairs from people, Patrick continued to live his life.
This past August Patrick was admitted to New York University’s Langone Medical Center to undergo the most extensive face transplant surgery ever. A team of surgeons works for 26 hours to cut the scarred facial tissue off of Patrick, and replace it with the face of a brain-dead man named David Rodebaugh:
100 people worked in two teams throughout the complicated surgery, which the team now considers a success. Three months later, the lower part of his face is still swollen, but with more time and a few more surgeries, it will go away.
It’s been years since the accident, but Patrick will finally regain a normal field of vision, and for the first time in years, he is able to go out in public without all the social anxiety that had become almost normal to him.
Occasionally someone will notice that something is off with his face, but Patrick explains “I used to get stared at all the time, but now I’m just an average guy.”
Watch the video below to see this brave man’s incredible journey:
Can you believe how far Patrick has come since being severely burned in a fire all those years ago? Share with us in the comments below.
[Featured image credit:NYU Langone Medical Center]