Face Transplant Makes History

The face of late 26 years old David Rodebaugh, a bicycling enthusiast in Brooklyn, was transplanted to the face of 41-year-old Patrick Hardison. The roof collapsed and his entire face including his lips, eye lids and ears were burned.

Mr Hardison, who was injured in a house fire as he attempted to rescue a woman he believed was trapped in the blaze, had third degree burns of his entire face and scalp. “Now we have proven that the technology, the ability to transplant faces, has advanced”.

Of the 30 people who have had face transplants, up to five have died from rejection. It’s the first time that doctors have transplanted a patient’s eyelids. Speaking to NY Magazine, the volunteer firefighter described how life was before the transplant: “Kids ran screaming and crying when they saw me”.

Doctors said Hardison received Rodebaugh’s full scalp and face, together with his ears, nose, lips and upper and lower eyelids.

Now 88 days out of surgery, Hardison is doing well and adjusting to the new face, doctors said Monday at a press conference in NY.

Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, Plastic Surgeon at NYU Langone Medical Center, and his team recently successfully completed a groundbreaking and complex face transplant.

They obtained the face through LiveOnNY, an organ donating foundation.

“We were looking for the ideal donor”, one who matched Hardison on biological traits to minimize the risk of his body’s rejecting the new tissue, as well as things like skin and hair colour, said Rodriguez, who by then had moved to NYU Langone.

He was given new eyelids and muscles that control blinking, as he was previously unable to shut his eyes completely, it added.

“It’s a historic achievement”, said Dr Amir Dorafshar, co-director of the face transplant programme at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

In the most extensive operation of its kind, carried out at the NYU Langone Medical Centre, he has now received a face transplant which covers his skull, much of his neck and both ears.

“This procedure is here to stay”, he said. “Even though I did not know who they would be, I prayed for them every day, knowing the hard decision they would have to make in order to help me”. In six months, he should be able to speak normally, he said. “I hope they see in me the goodness of their decision”.

“The type of injury that he had, there was no more that they could do to help”, Rodriguez told NBC News.

And the hospital covered the cost of Hardison’s surgery, which is estimated to have cost up to $1 million.