He was once an ordinary firefighter, but during one blaze he was severely injured, losing his ears, lips, eyelids, and most of his nose. 

As a result, he lost his job, and his wife left him for someone else. It took doctors almost 14 years to partially restore his face. 

His current appearance, after all the surgeries, was shown in the first comment 

Patrick Hardison never sought fame. He was simply a firefighter — brave, strong, and dedicated. But in September 2001, his life changed forever.

He responded to a call about a burning mobile home, but the collapsing ceiling engulfed his face in flames. Patrick survived, but his face was completely destroyed.

The burns took away his ears, lips, eyelids, and most of his nose. His skin was charred, and his eyes were covered with a mask of skin grafted from his thigh.

He couldn’t look in the mirror until November. When doctors made a tiny hole in his artificial eyelids, he saw his reflection and said, “What is that? I can’t take this.”

What followed were years of pain, loneliness, and struggle. His wife left. His children grew up while he could barely see. He went to baseball games but couldn’t stay — parents whispered, and kids turned away in fear.

Strangers pointed at him on the street.

Over the 14 years following the fire, Patrick underwent 70 plastic surgeries. He tried desperately to return to a normal life, but he looked like something out of a horror movie.

Hope came in the form of Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez from NYU Langone Medical Center. Rodriguez heard Patrick’s story from a friend and began preparing.

In 2015, he assembled a team of over one hundred specialists. It was the most extensive face transplant ever performed at the time.

The surgery lasted 26 hours. Patrick received a new face, scalp, ears, ear canals, nose, chin, cheeks, and eyelids — which could now blink.

The procedure cost around a million dollars, but the Hardison family didn’t pay a cent — the hospital covered it all.

Today, Patrick Hardison lives almost a normal life. He bought land, is building his own home, and is writing a book.