You probably heard a lot of mind-blowing stories, but the one about the life of Patrick Hardison from Mississippi is about to blow you out of your socks!
Back in 2015, Patrick was the first man to receive a face transplant after he was caught in a burning house that left his face completely disfigured back in 2001.
He began on a humble path as a volunteer firefighter earlier in his life. Whenever his help was needed, he didn’t hesitate a second, until one day a house collapsed on top of him and trapped him. His torso and face were severely burnt.
Youtube/NYU Langone Health
“[My mask] was melting to my face,” Patrick recalled a terrible memory. “My hose [was] already melted.”
“For somebody who does what we do for a living, I’ve never seen anybody burned that bad that was still alive,” friend and first responder Jimmy Neal told CBS News of seeing Patrick after the accident.
Patrick’s burns on his face and scalp were classified as 3rd degree burns. He also had burns on his head, neck and upper torso. His lips were completely destroyed along with most of his nose and eyelid tissue.
“I didn’t actually see myself until probably November. I got injured in September,” Patrick told Fox News. “They had cut a little pinhole in one of my eyelids because they had everything covered, skin graft. I looked in the mirror and all I could do, I said, ‘this is it? I can’t do this,’” he recalled.
Youtube/NYU Langone Health
Believe it or not, Patrick had to sustain over 70 surgeries and other procedures. He couldn’t close his eyes and doctors managed to put together flaps of skin to protect his vision, but there was always the risk of going blind…
Every time he ate, the pain was insurmountable. He couldn’t stand to look himself in the mirror, and everywhere he went people starred at him. He couldn’t hang around with people, even with his own children…
To protect himself and his look, Patrick always had a baseball cap and sunglasses on him. He also had ear prosthetic.
Twitter/PatrickHardison
“I had kids. It was just a tough time. I never got a day off from the injury. When you walk out in public, it was daily. And, you know, it’s just so — there’s no way to explain everything,” he told Yahoo! Sports.
