The life story of Patrick Hardison from Mississippi is nothing less than a mind-blowing one. This man is the first American who has received a face transplant back in 2015 after his face and neck were left completely disfigured during a house fire.
Patrick’s life was a great one up until the day the tragedy struck in 2001.
He worked as a volunteer firefighter earlier in his life, so when he got called to help with a house fire, he didn’t hesitate. Sadly, once he entered the burning place, it collapsed on top of him and trapped him. He couldn’t move and his torso and face were severely burnt.
“[My mask] was melting to my face,” Patrick recalled. “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 suffered third degree burns on his face and scalp. He also sustained burns to his head, neck, and upper torso. The fire also claimed his ears, lips, most of his nose, and even most of his 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.
Over the years, this man was forced to undergo over 70 surgeries, as well as other procedures. He couldn’t close his eyes and doctors were able to put together flaps of skin to protect his vision, but he was still facing the risk of going blind.
Patrick couldn’t eat without feeling excruciating pain. He just couldn’t get used to this life because he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror. Wherever he went, everyone starred at him, and he could barely stand being around people, even his children.
In order to hide and protect himself, Patrick wore sunglasses and a baseball cap all the time. He also had ear prosthetic.
“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.
“You go to the ball field, you have to prepare yourself for the kid that goes running off screaming.”
Years went by and Patrick lost hope of ever having a normal life. But then, French woman named Isabelle Dinoire received a partial face transplant after her face was severely disfigured by her pet dog. This procedure was revolutionary. It was the first ever of that kind. Surely, it gave a glimpse of hope to Patrick who at that point was truly struggling.
Patrick met doctor Eduardo D. Rodriguez from the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York who told him he would do the transplant surgery if they find a matching donor. It wasn’t easy, but one day, out of the blue, a donor appeared. LiveOnNY, a nonprofit that coordinates organ donations in the New York area, had found a match. The face Patrick was about to get belonged to 26-year-old David Rodebaugh who had sustained a massive head injury in a bike accident and had been declared brain dead.
This young man’s mother, Nancy Millar, decided to donate her son’s organs, including 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.
The thought of someone receiving her son’s face meant that David would continue to live on through the people whose lives he was about to save, including Patrick’s.
“When I met Patrick, I saw this strength, this strong, manly, burly kind of energy in him — that David had,” Nancy 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.”
Finally, the day of the transplant surgery had arrived. The procedure lasted for 26 long hours and was performed by a team of 100 professionals.
The risk was enormous and Patrick was given a 50/50 percent chance of survival. Luckily, it was a huge success. Patrick received a new face, scalp, ears, and ear canals. He also received eyelids which allowed him to blink naturally and save his vision.
“Everything in life has a risk,” Patrick 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.”
After he recovered from the swelling and he learned how to talk and swallow again, Patrick met his donor’s mother. Nancy only had one request, to kiss Patrick on the forehead.
“I said, ‘Can I kiss your forehead?’” Nancy 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 added. “Without her, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s like she’s family. We connected that easily.”
Ever since the surgery, Patrick is taking anti-rejection drugs that prevent his immune system from rejecting the face, but he’s thriving. He didn’t only receive a new face but a new life too.
Today, he is divorced and is working on a book which he hopes would serve as an inspiration to anyone who believes there is no way out from the situation they have found themselves in. “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 says.
His survival and his recovery are dubbed miraculous. Thanks to Nancy, Dr. Rodriguez and his team, and Patrick’s strong will, today, he is a happy man.
My Son Lifted Saleswoman’s Skirt Screaming: ‘Mommy, Look! That’s Why She’s Angry’
When Madeline and Ryan decide to go shopping for a new vacuum cleaner, their four-year-old son reveals that he knows the saleswoman—a woman that he had seen in his father’s office, the tattoo on her leg a dead giveaway.
It was an ordinary Saturday morning—the kind that held a promise of simple pleasures and family time.
“Madeline,” my husband said as he poured himself some coffee, “we’ll leave after breakfast, okay?”
Coffee being poured into a cup | Source: Pexels
I nodded as I cracked eggs into a bowl, ready to make breakfast for Ryan, my husband, and Sam, our four-year-old son.
It wasn’t anything special—we were just going to go out and get fruit for the week, and replace our broken vacuum cleaner. But what I didn’t know was that beneath the surface of this ordinary outing, a story was brewing, one that would shatter my reality of life as I knew it.
A couple with a young boy | Source: Pexels
“What’s for breakfast, Mom?” Sam asked, bouncing into the kitchen.
Later, when we were finally out of the house, I realized how grateful I was for the little life that we were living together as a family of three. I had always wanted a small family and a soft life—little outings, getting fresh fruit and vegetables from a farmer’s market, and so on.
An omelet on a plate | Source: Unsplash
I always thought that by marrying Ryan, I had gotten just that.
As we entered the store, Ryan veered off to examine some electronics, leaving Sam and me in the vacuum aisle. Ben held tightly onto my dress. He was always nervous when we ventured out.
A little boy with his parents and a balloon | Source: Pexels
I approached a saleswoman to inquire about a high-end vacuum I had spotted online.
“Don’t worry about the prices,” Ryan had said the night before when I sat at the dining room table with my laptop, looking through the latest brands and models of vacuums.
A person touching a vacuum cleaner | Source: Pexels
“Really?” I asked him. My husband wasn’t one to hold onto his pockets tightly, but recently he had become more liberal with spending in general.
“Yes,” he said, kissing my forehead before heading to read Sam a bedtime story. “Choose whatever you want.”
A woman using a laptop | Source: Pexels
At the store, however, the saleswoman looked me up and down.
“This vacuum?” she asked, pointing to the one I was inquiring about.
“Yes,” I replied. “And does it come in any other colors?”
A woman wearing a pink shirt | Source: Pexels
“It’s extremely expensive, you don’t look like you can afford it,” she sneered, looking me up and down with disdain again. She eyed my son, too. It was like she had seen him before, but couldn’t quite place him.
Her words stung, but before I could even muster a reply, Sam let go of my dress and darted to the woman.
A close-up of a little boy | Source: Pexels
Then he did something very out of character. Sam reached out to touch the saleswoman’s skirt, and slowly lifted it to a point just above her knee. There on her thigh was a large, distinctive tattoo.
“Look, Mom, look!” Sam exclaimed, pointing excitedly.
A woman revealing her tattoos | Source: Unsplash
The saleswoman’s face turned a fierce shade of red as she scrambled to cover herself.
“How dare you!” she yelled, her voice filled with indignation.
Panicking, I grabbed my son, pulling him back.
A shocked woman with her hands up | Source: Pexels
“I’m so sorry,” I stammered, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. “I’m sure he was just joking!”
But Sam was insistent, his little face screwed up in confusion.
“No, Mommy!” he said. “I’m not joking, Mommy! Look at that tattoo! I know it!”
My son looked like he was on the verge of tears.
A sad little boy | Source: Unsplash
“What do you mean, sweetheart?” I asked him.
My voice trembled, dreading the answer that I somehow already knew.
For a few weeks now, I had had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I just felt that something was off with Ryan. We barely spent time together. Usually, when we put Sam to bed, it was our time. Just for us to sit together and catch up.
A couple sitting together on a couch | Source: Pexels
But recently, we haven’t done any of that. Instead, Ryan would jump at the opportunity to put Sam to bed—something that involved at least an hour of playtime and a few bedtime stories later.
So, I would end up doing laundry and dishes, and then just go to bed.
A woman doing laundry | Source: Pexels
And Ryan’s new thing was that he was obsessed with getting a tattoo.
“I just think that I’m old enough to settle on something,” he said when I dug into a bar of chocolate.
“What are you planning on getting?” I asked him, suddenly confused by the new interest in tattoos.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I have options.”
A person getting a tattoo | Source: Pexels
“I saw her in Dad’s office. Daddy was holding her leg, and said that he was treating it. And that the tattoo was very sore,” Sam said matter-of-factly.
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Ryan wasn’t a doctor; he was a lawyer. There was no need to ‘treat’ anyone.
A man reading a document | Source: Pexels
There was no innocent explanation for what Sam had described. I glanced at the saleswoman, her earlier arrogance replaced by a mask of fear.
Just then, Ryan’s voice cut through the tense air.
“Maddie,” he said. “I finally found…” he trailed off as he rounded the corner and saw the tableau before him—his wife, his son, and his mistress in a standstill of awkwardness and shame.
A shocked man | Source: Pexels
Silence enveloped us. Ryan stuttered, attempting to concoct some plausible excuse, but the truth was glaringly obvious in the panic etched across his face.
I silenced him with a raised hand.
Sam gripped onto my hand, and swung it backward and forward a few times. He eyed his father nervously.
A woman with her hand raised | Source: Pexels
“We’ll discuss this at home,” I said quietly, my heart breaking inside.
The saleswoman slipped away, her part in this domestic drama over for the moment.
Before heading home, Ryan took us to Sam’s favorite fast food place. I knew that he was trying to get on Sam’s good side again. I ordered some tea to calm my nerves.
“Can we eat at home?” Sam asked me, his eyes wide with emotion.
A little boy sitting with his parents | Source: Pexels
That night, after putting Sam to bed and ensuring that he was sound asleep, I confronted my husband.
The façade of our happy marriage crumbled entirely as he confessed to an affair that had started over a year ago.
The details poured out, each one a dagger in my heart. The trust we had built over years was obliterated in just a few minutes.
A shadow of a couple | Source: Pexels
“Sasha and I were just friends,” Ryan said, putting the kettle on for me. “But then we needed to get new computers for the office. So I went to that store—and we got talking. That’s how it started.”
“And you just continued it? Did you even think about Sam and I?”
Ryan shook his head at my words.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just needed something new.”
Office computers on a table | Source: Pexels
He sat down on the couch and looked at me, as if waiting for me to lose my temper. But I was beyond it. I didn’t want to react in any other manner than calm.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was a fight I didn’t want to have. Ryan had been with this woman for over a year. He had chosen this woman for that long.
He had made his bed.
But the only thing that I wanted to know was why Sam had witnessed the entire interaction.
A man sitting on a couch | Source: Unsplash
“Why was Sam there?” I asked him.
“It was that day that the daycare needed us to pick up the kids early and you were stuck in meetings. So, I took him to the office for a while. He was supposed to be sitting in the reception and drawing with Nick, but then he came running into my office.”
I filed for divorce soon after. The process was painful—there were tears shed, lawyers were called, and a family was broken.
A table at a daycare facility | Source: Unsplash
I grappled with the betrayal, struggling to understand how the man I loved could have deceived me so thoroughly.
In the end, it was Sam’s innocent revelation that had brought the painful truth to light. While the knowledge devastated me, it also offered a strange sort of relief.
“Take his money,” my lawyer said. “We’re going to take him for everything he has.”
And I did.
A person signing a document | Source: Pexels
What would you have done?
If you enjoyed this story, here’s another one for you |
Juliet, a single mom, loves raising her nine-year-old daughter, River, by herself. River pushes her to be better. But after a while, Juliet begins to notice fierce independence taking over River—wanting more responsibility and autonomy. But then Juliet discovers a secret that comes with River’s backpack, and a hidden friend comes to light.
Read the full story here.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
Leave a Reply