After 26-hour long operation, US firefighter gets a new face

The 41-year-old whose face was horrifically burnt while tackling a blaze that has been given a brand new one in the most extensive transplant ever performed.  

Doctors in the United States have successfully carried out the world’s most extensive face transplant on a 41-year-old firefighter that restored his eyelids, ears, lips and hair, after he was horribly disfigured during a rescue operation in 2001.

The first-of-its-kind surgery in the New York state in August on a volunteer firefighter, Patrick Hardison, lasted for 26 hours and involved a team of more than 100 physicians, nurses, technical and support staff.

The team led by Eduardo D Rodriguez from Hansjorg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery at the New York University Langone Medical Centre worked in two adjoining operating rooms.

In one room, the donor’s face was procured (along with other donated organs), and in the other, the recipient’s face and scalp burn was removed and the transplant took place.

The donor was David P Rodebaugh, 26, an artist and bicycling enthusiast, who tragically died from injuries sustained in an accident.

Hardison, from Senatobia in Mississippi, had entered a burning home on a rescue search in 2001, when its roof collapsed on him, leaving him with disfiguring burns across his entire face, head, neck and upper torso.

He lost his eyelids, ears, lips, most of his nose as well as his hair including his eyebrows.

The team at NYU not only transplanted the face, but also the entire scalp. Hardison’s surgery was pivotal in that the donor’s eyelids and the muscles that control blinking were transplanted -- a significant milestone and a procedure that had not been previously performed on a seeing patient.The transplantation of the donor’s eyelids and blinking mechanisms was particularly important to the surgery’s success.

Blinking enables the body to appropriately hydrate and clean the eyes to prevent infection and preserve vision.

The doctors used advanced 3D modelling, computerised modelling and 3D printed patient-specific cutting guides designed from the recipient’s and the donor’s CT scans to provide the most precise “snap-fit” of the skeleton.

Within the final hours of surgery, signs of success were evident. Hardison’s new face, particularly his new lips and ears, were robust with colour, indicating circulation had been restored.

The hair on his scalp, as well as the beard on his face, began growing back immediately.

He was able to use his new eyelids and blink on the third day of recovery, after the swelling began to diminish.

Now, just three months removed from surgery, he is quickly returning to the routines of daily life independently. As part of his recovery, Hardison continues to go through extensive rehabilitative therapy.

Image: Dr Eduardo D Rodriguez, holds a news conference to announce the successful completion of the most extensive face transplant to date in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters