Face transplants are still a relatively young medical operation — in the retiring 10 age , MD have performed fewer than 30 surgical operation . Now former Mississippi firefighter Patrick Hardison has receive the most extensive case graft ever completed .
While attempt to deliver a woman he believe was trapped in a fire in 2001 , Hardison affirm third degree burns across his full typeface and scalp . For the past 14 year he ’s lived without ear or eyelids , and a severely disfigured nozzle and mouth . His face transplant come after 71 surgeries that purport to reconstruct his face , including one that graft skin from his thigh onto his head .
Hardison waited on the donor registry for more than a year to take in a full face transplant . The right presenter need to not only match his bloodline type , but his skin tone and hair color . Just when he was beginning to lose hope , Hardison received the news this retiring August that his lucifer had been found .
Over the course of 26 hoursbeginning August 14 , doctors painstakingly attached the face of 26 - yr - old David Rodebaugh , who was fatally hurt in a cycling stroke , onto 41 - year - old Hardison ’s skull . The squad of surgeons at NYU Langone Medical Center , leave by Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez , succeeded in transplanting more facial tissue than had ever been used in this eccentric of operation before . At the time of the surgery , Rodriguez ’s team tell the procedure had a50 - 50 chanceof success , and even afterward , there are batch of risk involved . According to Rodriguez , Hardison will in all probability have to take anti - rejection drugs for the rest of his life .
It ’s been three months since the process , and Hardison can now talk and express himself using his Modern side . He can even blink his eyes , something he had n’t been able to do in over a tenner . The procedure is a milestone for the medical community of interests and for facial operating theater prospect around the world , but according to Rodriguez , more register giver are demand before the operations can become a even occurrence .
According toMic , Rodebaugh ’s mother reportedly toldLiveOnNY , the reed organ giver match organization that facilitate the facial transplantation , that her Logos had always wanted to be a fire-eater . " David was bear a miracle . … He was bear to be a star . He will always be a whiz , and the miracle of David will endure on . "
[ h / t : Mic ]
