In the 26-hour operation
involving 100 surgeons, the donor's ears, ear canals, chin, cheeks, nose,
eyelids and blinking mechanism were removed and attached to Mr Hardison's face.
The transplant extended
from Mr Rodebaugh's collarbones in front all the way to the back of his head
leaving only a tiny patch of Mr Hardison's original hair.
Mr Rodebaugh's hair has
begun to grown on his new face and he is learning to shave again for the first
time in 14 years.
Mr Hardison was so badly
injured in 2001 that he was left unable to blink after receiving skin grafts to
reinforce what remained of his eyelids which were sewn almost shut to protect
his eyes.
"I was almost totally
blind," he recalled. "I could see just a little bit."
Mr Hardison, who became
accustomed to being stared at and playfully telling curious children that he
had fought a bear, came to the attention of plastic surgeon Dr Eduardo
Rodriguez in 2012.
"His face was one huge
scar," said Dr Rodriguez, who led the transplant operation at the Langone
Medical Centre in New York.
"We were looking for
the ideal donor, one who matched Hardison's biological traits to minimise the
risk of his body rejecting the new tissue, as well as things like skin and hair
colour."
About a year later Mr
Rodebaugh was identified as a potential donor after hitting his head during a
bicycle collision with a pedestrian.
His mother gave permission
for his face to be donated to Mr Hardiman, noting her son always wanted to be a
firefighter.
Despite his face remaining
swollen for a few more months, with his new eyelids Mr Hardiman is expected to
recover a normal field of vision for the first time in more than a decade.
"It's a historic
achievement," said Dr Amir Dorafshar, co-director of the face transplant
programme at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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