Pat Hardison, Mississippi’s first face transplant survivor, tells a story of fear, faith and a second chance

SENATOBIA — Pat Hardison still talks like a firefighter: direct, plain-spoken, the kind of man who measures life by tasks accomplished and calls answered.

The most recent accomplishment, though, is one that will endure as surely as any life he’s saved. Hardison, 51, has published a memoir, “Facing the Fire,” with Rose and Pearl Publishing that he hopes will offer “hope for people struggling in everyday life,” he said in a recent interview at the Mississippi Book Festival.

Hardison’s story is already well-known. In 2001, a structure fire left him with catastrophic burns that destroyed his face and much of his neck. After years of surgeries and isolation, he received an extensive face transplant that rebuilt his face and restored eyelids — a procedure surgeons called uniquely challenging b