Firefighter Patrick Hardison Grateful For Face Transplant

Remember Patrick Hardison? He was the Mississippi volunteer firefighter who underwent the world's most extensive face transplant after he suffered severe, disfiguring burns on his face while on duty, in an accident.

Patrick Hardison, the recipient of the most extensive facial transplant surgery to date, pic.twitter.com/A0t3VuSlzm

— Persian Rose (@PersianRose1) August 25, 2016

According to CNN, Hardison suffered extensive burns afer responding to a house fire in 2001, and he lost his eyelids, ears, lips, hair and most of his nose in the incident., He used baseball caps and sunglasses to hide his face, as he received a lot of public scrutiny, or worse, have children walk away from him, crying.

Today, he can now swim and drive a car, but most importantly, The Washington Post reported that he was just grateful that people no longer stare at his scars. His new face was donated by the family of 26-year-old David Rodenbaugh, an Ohio native who died when he fell off his bike. Fortunately for Hardison, it's been one year after the historic face transplant, and his body has not rejected the organ. "I'm pretty much back to being a normal guy, doing normal activities," Hardison shared. "The surgery has truly given me back my life. I go about my day just like everyone else."

He also noted that it helped him experience life again, adding that "It's allowed me to do things with my family that I had not been able to do. I can't tell you what a sense of freedom it is to even drive my kids to school. We recently went on a family vacation to Disney World, and I swam in the pool with them - something I hadn't done in 15 years."

Headed by Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez of NYU Langone's plastic surgery department, the surgery was called a "game changer." The doctor shared, "Being able to give Pat this level of independence is a primary reason why we undertook this surgery." NBC New York also reported that Hardison is gearing to meet with the family of the donor later this fall.