Firefighter has most extensive facial transplant in the world

A Mississippi volunteer firefighter who was left badly disfigured in a blaze 14 years ago has received the most extensive full-face transplant in the world.

Patrick Hardison suffered the life-threatening injuries in 2001 when he entered a burning mobile home trying to locate a woman believed to be trapped inside. As he searched for her, the roof collapsed on top of him, burning his face. It later turned out that the 'trapped' woman had been fishing at a stream nearby all along.

Following his injuries, Hardison spent the next 14 years undergoing 70 facial reconstruction surgeries, which left him in agony and with an addiction to pain medication. Speaking to New York Magazine, the volunteer firefighter described how life was before the transplant: "Kids ran screaming and crying when they saw me. There are things worse than dying. […] People don't understand how hard it is just to face the day. And it doesn't end. It's every day."

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His injuries eventually led to bankruptcy and the breakdown of his marriage.

On 14 August, in a 26-hour procedure performed at the NYU Langone Medical Center by Dr Eduardo Rodriguez, Hardison received a new face, scalp, ears, lips and ear canals. The face was transplanted from David Rodebaugh, a 26-year-old artist and competitive biker who had been declared brain-dead after suffering a bike accident.

This was the third prospective face donor Hardison had considered: the first one belonged to a Hispanic man, the second to a woman. With the success rate for the transplant at 50 per cent, the face had to be a genetic match, as well as resemble Hardison's skin tone and hair colour.

Even so, according to Dr Rodriguez, "there will be a rejection – not if, but when". Only 30 patients have received facial transplants until now, and between three and five of them have died after their organism rejected the transplant. "When it happens to Hardison," says the New York Magazine, "doctors will treat it with massive amounts of immuno­suppressants and steroids and hope for the best."