You’ve definitely heard some incredible stories, but the one about the life of Patrick Hardison from Mississippi is going to knock your socks off!

Patrick was the first guy to have a face transplant in 2015 after being captured in a burning house in 2001, which left his face severely scarred.

He began his career as a volunteer fireman early in life. He never hesitated to help everyone who needed it, until one day a home fell on top of him, trapping him. His torso and face had been badly burned.

My mask was melting to my face. Patrick had a dreadful experience. “My hose [had] already melted.”

“For somebody who does what we do for a living, I’ve never seen anybody burned that bad who was still alive,” friend and first responder Jimmy Neal said of meeting Patrick after the tragedy.

The injuries on Patrick’s face and scalp were classified as third-degree burns. He suffered burns on his head, neck, and upper chest as well. His lips, as well as the majority of his nose and eyelid tissue, were entirely obliterated.

“I probably didn’t see myself until November. “I was injured in September,” Patrick explained to Fox News. “They had cut a small pinhole in one of my eyelids because they had covered everything with a skin graft. I stared in the mirror, and all I could think was, “Is this it? “I can’t do it,” he remembered.

Patrick had to endure nearly 70 surgeries and various treatments, believe it or not. He couldn’t cover his eyes, and surgeons had to sew skin flaps together to safeguard his eyesight, but he was still at risk of going blind.

The agony was unbearable every time he ate. He couldn’t tolerate looking at himself in the mirror, and everyone stared at him everywhere he went. He couldn’t be around anyone, not even his own children.

Patrick usually wore a baseball cap and sunglasses to protect himself and his appearance. He also wore an ear prosthesis.

“I had children. It was just a difficult moment. I never had a day off because of the injury. It was daily when you went out in public. And, you know, there’s no way to explain everything,” he said to Yahoo! Sports.

“When you go to the ball field, you have to brace yourself for the kid who runs away screaming.”

Patrick had given up hope of ever having a “normal” life, but everything changed when a French woman, Isabelle Dinoire, had a face transplant after her dog ruined much of it. This method was groundbreaking, and Patrick hoped he would be the next in line.

He spoke with Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, who told him that if they found a matched donor, he would do everything he could to make the face transplant a success. One day, LiveOnNY, a New York-based group that arranges organ donation, discovered a match.

David Rodebaugh, 26, suffered a severe head injury in a biking accident and has been certified brain dead. His face would be placed on Patrick’s.

David Rodebaugh’s mother, Nancy Millar, agreed to give her son’s organs, including his face: “I said, ‘You better save his face.'” He has a porcelain doll’s face.’ And he’s a donor—we’d discussed it,” Millar told People.

She hoped that her son’s legacy, or at least a piece of it, would be utilized to save another person’s life, including Patrick’s.

“When I met Patrick, I saw in him this strength—this strong, manly, burly kind of energy—that David had,” Nancy recounted.

“David wanted to be a firefighter, and I knew that if this guy was a firefighter—willing to walk into a fire to save people while risking his own life—then he had the strength that David had.”

Over the course of 26 hours, hundreds of specialists carried out the treatment on the scheduled day.

Of course, every operation has a risk, and this one had a 50/50 chance of success. Patrick, on the other hand, was fortunate to be under the tutelage of hundreds of specialists. He was given a new face, scalp, ears, ear canals, and eyelids, allowing him to blink normally and save his vision.

“Everything in life has a risk,” Patrick told Time.

“When the time comes for you to go, you’ll go,” whether you’re lying on an operating table or hit by a car while crossing the street.

Patrick visited with Nancy, the donor’s mother, once the swelling had subsided and he had regained his ability to speak and swallow. She had one kind request: to kiss Patrick on the cheek.

“I said, ‘Can I kiss your forehead?'” Nancy stated. “That’s the one thing I wanted to do because every night before David went to bed when he was little, I kissed his forehead.”

“I’ve been looking forward to seeing her for a year. “I’m just thankful,” Patrick continued. “It wouldn’t have been possible without her. It’s as if she’s a member of the family. That was a simple connection.”

Patrick and others who have received organ transplants are given anti-rejection drugs, which inhibit your body’s natural defense system (immune system) to keep it from detecting your transplant as a “foreign invader” and rejecting it. Patrick, on the other hand, is prospering with his new life and appearance.

He is now divorced and working on a book to help those who believe there is no way out of a scenario they have created for themselves.

“Because I want to show the world that there is hope. I don’t want people who were like me years ago to believe that’s it; I have to live this way forever. No, you don’t. “You can do anything,” Patrick adds.

His total recuperation, as well as his chances of surviving the accident, have been labeled remarkable. Patrick is a happy guy today, thanks to all of the doctors who restored his face and Nancy’s wonderful gift.