A volunteer firefighter badly burned in a 2001 blaze has received the most extensive face transplant ever carried out, covering his skull and much of his neck.
The surgery took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Centre in New York. The patient, 41-year-old Patrick Hardison, is still undergoing physical therapy at the hospital but plans to return home to Senatobia, Mississippi, in time for Thanksgiving next week.
The surgery has paved the way for him to regain normal vision, and he said that will let him accomplish a major goal: "I'll start driving again."
More than two dozen face transplants have been performed worldwide since the first one in France in 2005. Dr Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the surgical team that did Mr Hardison's transplant and recently wrote a review of the field, said Mr Hardison's is by far the most extensive performed successfully in terms of the amount of tissue transferred.
The transplant extends from the top of the head, over Mr Hardison's skull and down to the collarbones in front. At the back, it reaches far enough down that only a tiny patch of Mr Hardison's original hair remains - its colour matched by the dark blond hair growing on his new scalp. The transplant includes both ears.
It's "a historic achievement," said Dr Amir Dorafshar, co-director of the face transplant programme at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This type of treatment option will potentially revolutionise the care of patients with severe facial burn injuries."
The surgery began on August 14 and lasted 26 hours. It left no scars on Mr Hardison's new face because the seam of the transplanted tissue runs down the back of his skull.
The donor was 26-year-old New York artist and competitive cyclist David Rodebaugh who died of injuries from a biking accident.
Mr Hardison was burned in 2001, in Senatobia. A 27-year-old father of three at the time, who had served for seven years as a volunteer firefighter, he entered a burning house to search for a woman. The roof collapsed, giving him third-degree burns on his head, neck and upper torso.
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