The fireman who put out a fire and destroyed his face: the new life of the faceless man

In a burning house while trying to save a woman he believed was trapped inside, the life of patrick hardison changed forever.

Suffering from third-degree burns all over his face and scalp, this brave man spent years roaming the city wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and artificial ears.

Patrick said the kids ran away when they saw him, but in 2015, his life took another turn for the better. when he received the most complete face transplant ever performed.

According to sources, Hardison’s chances of surviving the face transplant were 50/50. The procedure, which required the work of more than 100 people in two teams for 26 hours, was a success. Patrick Hardison currently shares his life with his loving wife and children.

“After the accident, my life was very hard,” Hardison told American media, “I hated life. Today I’m here because I want others to see that there is hope behind suffering.”

History

In 2001, Hardison was 28 years old and a working firefighter, when flames burned almost all over his face during a fire.

This American firefighter, now 42, has lost his ears, nose, hair and lips. His eyes were just two small jagged holes. But, to try to reconstruct his face, Hardison underwent 71 operations (7 per year), using skin grafts. He has been in and out of operations and had bad results for several years, this has caused him depression and affected his family life.

However, in August 2014, a friend of Patrick’s told him about a doctor named Eduardo Rodríguez, who had performed a successful face transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center in 2012. Hardison didn’t think twice and decided to undergo surgery. operation.

He joined a donor waiting list which was a requirement to start the procedure. Finally, the medical team that performed the transplant in 2015 used the face of David Rodebaugh, a 26-year-old mechanic who was brain dead and decided to sign up for the donor list before he died.

The operation turned out to be quite complex, as Hardison had a 50% chance of dying, but it all ended very successfully. Probably one of the greatest satisfactions for Patrick and for the medical team who operated on him is the fact that the transplant never produced rejection.