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.
Mom Of Black And White Twins Boys Often Gets Asked Which One Is Hers
This 31-year-old Nigerian woman had no idea what she was about to go through when she gave birth in February of that year. She can now distinguish her sons’ identical twins with ease. Even though Daniel and David were born only a few minutes apart, they don’t resemble one another at all.
Albinos are both of Stacy and Babajide’s children, who are both black and reside in Lagos. The adorable twins frequently attract attention wherever they go as a result of their noticeably dissimilar appearances. David is stunningly white with pale skin and golden hair, whereas Daniel resembles his 5-year-old big sister Demilade and has dark skin and black curly hair.
After only a year, the twins had nearly 18,000 followers on Instagram thanks to Stacy’s decision to share the odd couple’s activities there.
The twins’ birth on February 26 of last year completely caught everyone off guard.
“We did not know about their differences while I was pregnant, the scan did not show such so it was a huge surprise and the most amazing moment when the first twin (Daniel) came out with black hair and the second twin (David) came out with gold hair. I had them through CS, so the doctors were like: “It seems you are having totally unidentical twins.” Before I knew it, nurses started coming out to look at them,” mum of three, Stacy, explained.
The twins could be clearly distinguished from one another since one was black and the other was white
Stacy shared with us her husband’s heartfelt response to this turn of events.
“Their dad was really overwhelmed and immediately named My Twin 2 (David) ‘Golden,’ so he fondly calls him Mr. Golden. He was all overjoyed seeing his boys. He stood for more than 10 minutes staring at them and said he was just looking at God’s wonderful work and that they are his best gift ever.”
David falls into the highly unusual category of albinism; just 1 in 20,000 infants are born with this condition.
Albinism is a congenital condition that alters appearance due to a lack of melanin, the pigment generated in the skin, hair, and eyes. All racial and ethnic groups are impacted, and the type of pigmentation affects pigmentation to varying degrees. With a birth probability of between 3,000 and 20,000, albinism is a rare condition. Albinos must exercise extreme caution because it may result in a number of skin and vision problems.
David has gorgeous golden hair and an exceptionally pale complexion due to oculocutaneous albinism. Fortunately, Stacy claims that David has no health issues.
Nigeria is one of the nations with the greatest prevalence of albinism in the world with over two million confirmed or suspected cases. However, the statistics show that there is still a lot of prejudice against this community because of the color of its members’ skin. Over 600,000 albino Nigerians experience discrimination and harassment from their peers, family, and communities, which frequently results in difficulties on the job and academic failure.
Stacy did claim that her two sons are both unconditionally and equally adored and that no one has ever said anything unpleasant about them to her.
“There’re always side talks whenever we go out, people often wanna know how and what’s happening and maybe due to their cute and adorable nature, you just wanna come close to say hello.”
The twins’ family has been receiving modeling offers from agencies in the UK due to their odd features. The family is ready to take advantage of any opportunities that may present themselves and has created an Instagram account to share their joy and draw attention to significant issues. Stacy and I decided to create an account for them in order to spread awareness since we believe they have a story to tell.
“They have two different amazing personalities, they are a year+ now, walking and very playful,” said Stacy
“Daniel is more expressive while David is an observer. Both of them are highly inquisitive. Daniel is a foodie while David is quite picky; Daniel is extremely playful while David chooses moments; Daniel always likes to play the bigger brother role; they are both energetic.”
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