Firefighter gets most extensive face transplant ever

Nov 19, 2015 A volunteer firefighter from Mississippi, whose face was damaged during a home fire rescue, recently underwent the world’s most extensive face transplant.

Doctors at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York announced the completion of the procedure, which gave 41-year-old Patrick Hardison a new scalp, ears and eyelids.

Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, a plastic surgeon at NYU, said Hardison could now afford to sleep with his eyes closed; a key step in sparing his eyes from blindness which was previously deemed inevitable.

Dr Rodriguez, who led the 150-person medical team, went on to say:

“The fact that we were able to perform this and the patient was able to come out of the operating room safely is a very important historic event. In addition, the amount of tissue that was transplanted in Patrick’s face had not been transplanted before. … It’s a big risk that we take and a risk that the patients understand… But now we’ve proven that the ability to transplant the face has advanced and likely gone, it’s advanced more than the science of immunosuppression. So this is here to stay, it will not go away and we can do this safer and the results of these patients will be far better,”