Doctors at NYU’s Langone Medical Center announced today that a volunteer firefighter from Mississippi, horribly burned in a 2001 fire, has received the most-extensive face transplant ever. And the face that he received came from a former Columbus man.

26-year-old David Roderbaugh was an artist and competitive BMX rider who suffered a head injury and passed away in August of this year. His mother says that David was an organ donor and she gave permission for doctors to transplant her son’s face to the burned firefighter, 41-year-old Patrick Hardison.

Hardison had been on the waiting list for a transplant for over a year. Doctors say that he is doing “incredibly well.” (jj)

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