Patrick Hardison, a 41-year-old volunteer firefighter, was badly burned in 2001 while entering a burning house in Mississippi in search for a woman. On Sept. 5, a roof collapsed and gave him third degree burns on his head, neck, and upper torso. At the time of the incident, Hardison was a 27-year-old father of three who had served for seven years as a volunteer firefighter.

Now, more than a decade later, Hardison has undergone the most extensive face transplant in history. The transplant covers his skull and most of his neck. The surgery took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Center.

Since then, he has been enduring physical therapy at the hospital. He plans to return to his home of Senatobia, Mississippi, just in time for Thanksgiving.

The first ever face transplant happened in France in 2005, and more than two dozen have been performed worldwide since then. Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the leader of the surgical team that implemented Hardison’s transplant, said that it was by far the most extensive face transplant successfully performed.

The transplant began on Aug. 14, 2015 and lasted a total of 26 hours. It extends from the top of his head, covering his entire skull and reaching to his collarbones. Only a tiny patch of his original hair remains, which is being matched by the new dark blonde hair now growing. The seam of the transplanted tissue runs down the back of his skull, so no scarring will occur on his new face.

The donor was 26-year-old David P. Rodebaugh, a New York artist and competitive bicyclist. He died from sustaining injuries from a biking accident. Hardison was on the waiting list for his transplant for a year until Rodebaugh was identified as a potential donor by nonprofit organization LiveOnNY. They were in search for an ideal donor who would match Hardison’s biological traits in order to minimize the risk of his body rejecting the new tissues, along with physical traits such as skin and hair color. Rodebaugh was an Ohio native who previously signed up as an organ donor. His mother gave permission to use his face for the transplant, stating that he “had always wanted to be a firefighter.”

Because of the transplant, Hardison will be able to regain normal vision. After the original incident, he spent two months in a Memphis, Tennessee burn center. Although doctors were able to use a layer of skin from his legs to cover the wounds on his head, he lost his ears, lips, nose, and nearly all of his eyelid tissue. The doctors had no choice but to sew his eyelids nearly shut in order to protect his eyes.

“I was almost totally blind,” Hardison stated in an interview, “I could see just a little bit.”

“I’ll start driving again,” he added, saying that it was his major goal.

It has been three months since Hardison received the surgery. His face is still swollen, but Dr. Rodriguez said that it will subside within the next few months.

Hardison said that his new face has already made a difference in his life. “I used to get stared at all the time, but now I’m just an average guy.”

He plans to become a motivational speaker or something similar to. The message he wants to deliver is, “Just how there is hope.”