But as time went by, surgeons developed new methods for face transplants. Finally, in 2005, Isabelle Dinoire became the first-ever person to have a face transplant. Hardison, though, had given up hope of getting the help he desperately wanted.
Then, one day, a friend stumbled across Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez, who worked at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Rodriquez had performed a face transplant before, and so the search began to find Patrick a donor.
After a year, Hardison’s search had turned up just two potential donors. The first one was a good match – but the tissue profile was not.
Patrick Hardison – face donor David Rodebaugh
The second candidate looked very promising. However, the man’s family withdrew him from consideration.
Hardison was preparing to accept that he might never get a face transplant. Then, out of the blue, another potential donor came to light. LiveOnNY, a nonprofit that coordinates organ donations in the New York area, had found a match. The face belonged to David Rodebaugh a 26-year-old who had sustained a massive head injury in a bike accident and had been declared brain dead.
After David passed away, his mother, Nancy Millar, decided to donate her son’s organs, including liver, heart, and kidneys. More important, she decided to also donate his face.
“I said, ‘You better save his face. He has the face of a porcelain doll.’ And he’s a donor — we had talked about it,” Millar told People.
She didn’t hesitate for a second when she heard about Patrick and the possibility of him getting a face transplant. For her, it was a chance for David to live on.
“When I met Patrick, I saw this strength, this strong, manly, burly kind of energy in him — that David had,” she recalled.
“David wanted to be a firefighter, an I knew if this guy was a firefighter — he was willing to walk into a fire to save people and risk his own life — then he had the strength that David had.”
Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez assembled his team of 100 doctors, nurses, and other medical aides, and together they prepared for Hardison’s surgery. It was the most extensive soft tissue face transplant ever performed – the surgery took a whopping 26 hours.
50/50 chance of surviving the surgery
The medical team gave Hardison a new face, scalp, ears, and ear canals. They selected portions of bone from the chin, cheeks, and the entire nose. Not only that, but Patrick also received new eyelids, returning to him the ability to blink naturally.
But the surgery was not without risk. Due of the nature of the highly complex procedure, Patrick only had a 50/50 chance of surviving.
“Everything in life has a risk,” Hardison told Time Magazine.
“When it’s your time to go, you’ll go—whether you’re walking down the street and get hit by a car or you’re lying on the operating table.”
Prior to the surgery, Patrick met his family for what could’ve been the last time.
His eldest daughter Alison wondered why her father was so desperate to go through with the procedure.
“He said, ‘I won’t have to wear a ball cap and I won’t have to wear my sunglasses. I’ll look normal whenever I get to walk you down the aisle,’” Alison recalled Patrick saying.
“And that right then pretty much sealed the deal for me.”
Fortunately, the procedure was a big success, though it was only the start of a very long journey for Patrick. During the first week following the operation, he endured late night scares involving fluctuations in blood pressure and an unstable airway.
The new face also meant that he had to learn how to speak and swallow again, and he suffered from both anxiety and had bouts of frustration because of it. He couldn’t even close his mouth because his face was so swollen.
“They have given me a new life”
Despite all that, the surgery was life-changing. Not only did Patrick experience the joy of seeing his family again, but he also got to meet David Rodebaugh’s mother, Nancy Millar. Their first encounter after the surgery was an emotional one, and it turned out Nancy had one request.
“I said, ‘Can I kiss your forehead?’” Millar said. “That’s the one thing I wanted to do because every night before David went to bed when he was little, I kissed his forehead.”
“I’ve been waiting a year to meet her. I’m just very grateful,” Patrick said. “Without her, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s like she’s family. We connected that easily.”
It’s now been seven years since Patrick underwent his face transplant. Since then, his life has changed plenty – he and Chrissi divorced a year after the surgery, following ten years of marriage.
Hardison’s face healed nicely, and the swelling has gone down. Though he has to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life to stop his body’s immune system from fighting the inserted transplant, it has given him the chance to live again.
“I am deeply grateful to my donor and his family,” Hardison said in a statement.
“Even though I did not know who they would be, I prayed for them every day, knowing the difficult decision they would have to make in order to help me. “
“I hope they see in me the goodness of their decision. I also want to thank Dr. Rodriguez and his amazing team. They have given me more than a new face. They have given me a new life.”
Patrick Hardison today – pictures
Today, the father-of-five wants to use his journey and recovery to spread the message that it’s never too late to give up. Patrick stands for hope, and he desires to help others struggling with debilitating injuries.
“I’ve bought my own place, working on getting a house built. I’m working on a book,” Hardison told Fox in 2021.
“Because I want to show the world that you can have hope. I wouldn’t want people that were like me years ago to think that’s it, I have to live like this. You don’t. You can accomplish anything.”
Patrick Hardison’s recovery is a miracle, and we are incredibly inspired by surgeon Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez and his team. You are the real heroes!
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