Pat Hardison, the 42-year-old who was left mutilated after a 2001 building fire successfully undergone a face transplant. For the first time since receiving the most detailed face transplant in the world, the former Mississippi firefighter is meeting with the donor’s mom. Nancy Millar, of Columbus, from Ohio, also met three people whose lives changed thanks to her son, two children with new kidneys and a woman with a new heart.
Former Firefighter Who Undergone Face Transplant Meets Mother of Donor
It was an emotional scene when Pat Hardison and Nancy Millar met for the first time. Millar dropped to her knees and shed happy tears as Pat Hardison and two more people, who undergone transplants, appeared before her. It is their first time to see, talk and thank each other. Hardison, a firefighter, had on his forehead the very same chicken pox scar that Millar would kiss every time to her son, David Rodebaugh.
According to Inside Edition, Hardison is the first person to receive the most detailed face transplant in the world. "May I kiss your forehead?" Millar asked Hardison. She then explained that she and her son used to have a tradition of kissing each other on the forehead. “Thank you for being so strong and healthy,” Millar said to the recipient of her son’s face. “I am as proud of you as I was of my own son,” she continued.
Doctors Realized Nancy's Son Can Be A Donor
As reported by ABC News, the man was Pat Hardison, who underwent a groundbreaking face transplant last year, which was only made possible because of Nnacy Millar’s decision to donate her son David Rodebaugh’s face and organs. Rodebaugh was riding without a helmet in the Brooklyn bicycle accident last summer, and fought for his life for three weeks before his mother decided to let him go.
As a single mother, Millar raised Rodebaugh in Ohio, where he eventually was known as a BMX rider and a bike mechanic. When doctors realized Rodebaugh was an organ donor, and a match for Hardison, who lost his face in a fire nearly 15 years ago and was left with third-degree burns, Millar family decided to go ahead with the controversial and experimental surgery that would change Hardison’s life forever.
