Patrick Hardison, a volunteer firefighter from Mississippi whose entire head was grievously burned during a home fire rescue received the world’s most extensive face transplant ever attempted, several news media outlets reported on Monday.

According to the report, a team of medical professionals at the New York University Langone Medical Center successfully performed the most ambitious facial transplant ever attempted.

The 41-year-old firefighter, whose face burned off while responding to a Mississippi house fire, received a full scalp and face, including ears, nose, lips and upper and lower eyelids subcutaneous bony structures, to restore normal facial figures after

Photo: NY Medical Center

The surgeons grafted the full scalp, face and neck of 26-year-old bicycle messenger David Rodebaugh, a BMX extreme bicycling enthusiast from Brooklyn who was pronounced brain dead after a cycling accident.

Photo: NY Medical Center

His transformation is so remarkable, that his family was left in awe. “David was born a miracle,” his mother said. Now, she aded, “the miracle of David will live on.”

Inside Edition has more on this incredible story in the video below:

“This is here to stay, it will not go away,” said surgeon said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the plastic surgeon who led the 150-person medical team that performed the procedure.

“We can do this safer” in future cases. Future patients for such surgery may include service personnel who have been disfigured in combat situations,” Rodriguez said. The program that allowed the operation to take place was funded by the Defense Department, according to Reuters.

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