The surgery took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Center. The patient, 41-year-old Patrick Hardison, is still undergoing physical therapy at
the hospital but plans to return home to Senatobia, Mississippi, in time for
Thanksgiving.
The surgery has paved the way for him to regain normal vision, and in an interview last week he said that will let him accomplish a major goal: "I'll
start driving again."
More than two dozen face transplants have been performed worldwide since the first one in France in 2005. Dr. Eduardo
Rodriguez Frans
Nielsen Jersey , who led the surgical team that did Hardison's transplant
and recently wrote a review of the field, said Hardison's is by far the most
extensive performed successfully in terms of the amount of tissue transferred.
Patrick Hardison before and after the surgery. The process of Hardison's therapy. Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez spoke at a conference about Hardison's case in
New York University. Patrick Hardison before the burn. Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez
spoke at a conference about Hardison's case in New York University. Dr. Eduardo
Rodriguez spoke at a conference about Hardison's case in New York University.
The transplant extends from the top of the head, over Hardison's skull and down to the collarbones in front; in back, it reaches far enough down that only
a tiny patch of Hardison's original hair remains — its color matched by the dark
blond hair growing on his new scalp. The transplant includes both ears.
It's "a historic achievement," said Dr. Amir Dorafshar, co-director of the face transplant program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who
was not involved in the operation. "This type of treatment option will
potentially revolutionize the care of patients with severe facial burn
injuries."
The surgery began Aug. 14 and lasted 26 hours. It left no scars on Hardison's new face because the seam of the transplanted tissue runs down the back of his
skull.
The donor was 26-year-old New York artist and competitive bicyclist David P. Rodebaugh. He had died of injuries from a biking accident on a Brooklyn street.
Hardison was burned Sept. 5 Mike
Green Jersey , 2001, in Senatobia in northwestern Mississippi. A
27-year-old father of three at the time who'd served for seven years as a
volunteer firefighter, he entered a burning house to search for a woman. The
roof collapsed, giving him third-degree burns on his head, neck and upper torso.
He spent about two months at a Memphis, Tennessee, burn center. Doctors used a layer of skin from his legs to cover his wounded
head Gordie
Howe Jersey , but he had lost his ears, lips, most of his nose and
virtually all of his eyelid tissue.
Since he could not blink, doctors used skin grafts to reinforce what remained of his eyelids and sewed them nearly shut to protect his eyes. That left him
with only pinhole vision.
"I was almost totally blind," he recalled. "I could see just a little bit."
His face was "one huge scar," Rodriguez said. Hardison still went to baseball games and did other things outside, although people stared. He playfully told
curious children that he had fought a bear.
Still Detroit Red
Wings Jersey , he said, life was hard. He endured 71 surgeries.
Eventually a church friend of his wrote to Rodriguez, who had performed a 2012 face transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The doctor
said he would try to help, and in August 2014 Hardison was placed on a waiting
list.
"We were looking for the ideal donor," one who matched Hardison on biological traits to minimize the risk of his body's rejecting the new tissue, as well as
things like skin and hair color, said
Rodriguez Tyler
Seguin Jersey , who by then had moved to NYU Langone.
A year later, Rodebaugh was identified as a potential donor by LiveOnNY, the nonprofit organization that seeks transplant organs and tissue in the New York
City area. A native of the Columbus, Ohio, area, he had signed up to donate
organs. His mother gave permission to use his face, noting that Rodebaugh had
always wanted to be a
firefighter Jamie
Benn Jersey , said LiveOnNY president Helen Irving.
The hospital paid for the transplant operation, which included attaching four bone segments to Hardison's skull, as anchors to prevent the face from drooping.
Now, three months later, the lower part of his face remains swollen, but Rodriguez said that will go away in a few months. With his new eyelids and more
surgery, he's expected to regain a normal field of vision for the first time in
more than a decade. He will have to continuing taking medications to prevent his
body from rejecting the transplant.
Eventually Dallas Stars Jersey , "a casual observer will not notice anything that is odd" in
Hardison's new face, which will blend features of his original face and the
donor's, Rodriguez said.
Hardison said his new face has already made a difference when he goes outside.
"I used to get stared at all the time, but now I'm just an average guy," he said.
He's been told he can't return to firefighting because of insurance concerns, but he has another plan: motivational speaking or something similar, perhaps for
wounded veterans.
His message? "Just how there is hope."
"
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