Transcripts For WPVI Nightline 20161231

Nightline brave face to face will be right back. Nivea inshower body lotion after washing apply and rinse 24 hours of moisture with no sticky feel. Then get dressed and go. Delight your senses with inshower cocoa butter. Available in the body lotion aisle. This special edition of nightline. Brave face to face continues. Good evening. Tonight we take a look back at an unforgettable encounter. Pat haddison, firefighter, badly burned in the line of duty, endured the most extensive face transplant ever attempted. It required a selfless act on the part of a grieving mother. Over a year later nancy millar is coming face to face with the man whose bravery made this moment. Heres my nightline coanchor juju chang. Reporter just up those stairs is a man nancy millar has never met. Whats going through your mind . Reporter but his face she already knows. Im going to try not to lose it. Reporter it belongs to pat haddison, recipient of a groundbreaking face transplant. Theres no way to describe the thanks and the gratitude that i have. Reporter the donor, nancys son, david. Tonight shes going to meet some of the people whose lives he saved and come face to face with pat for the very first time. Its going to be emotional on both ends. No more tears. Happy tears, happy tears, happy tears. Here i come. All right. Now i believe we have candles reporter its been more than a year since nancy lost her son dave. Grab a couple of bouquets. We were really close, almost like we were twins. Reporter she raised him as a single mother. Their tight bond forged while they traveled the country working together at craft fairs. He liked to create. He knew how to do just about everything. He had a serious, serious thing for speed. Riding fixed gear for probably 10, 12 years. Reporter his love of bicycles brought him to new york where he worked as a bike mechanic. Ive been riding my whole life. It started out when i could walk. My parents bought me a 12inch Ninja Turtles huffy bike. Started taking that off wooden bumps, busting my eyes open, breaking bones, been doing it since. There was no fear in that boy. Reporter the group he rode with becoming much more than friends. Its like a family outside of a family. Everyone looks out for everyone. Its a pretty tightknit group of people. Reporter al lopes was one of them. Dave was without a doubt like the best guy you never met. Reporter flying through the air, defying gravity, thats david ripping around the crack at a red bullsponsored race in 2014. Kind of like, gas it, not think about it, just go, go, go. Reporter a year after winning that race, dave suffered a head injury in a bike accident while riding home from work. He wasnt wearing a helmet. After clinging to life for more than three weeks, nancy made the heartbreaking decision to let him go. But david would live on in the tiny mementos and the big memorials his friends set up and in the countless people whose lives were about to change. This was all meant to be somehow. I think he knew he was going to be giving. Reporter dave had chosen to be an organ donor and he was also a Perfect Match for an experimental surgery nearly 15 years in the making. An unprecedented procedure to give pat hartison a new face. The volunteer firefighter and father from mississippi ran into a Burning House searching for survivors when the roof collapsed. You know daddy left one way, when i came back home i was a totally different person. Reporter he was lucky to survive but the fire robbed him of his scalp, ear, nose. His lips were also gone. His daughter alison was 6 at the time. I remember going out to the house and my mom and stepdad literally had to drag me in the house because i was scared. Reporter while his devastated family and friends adjusted over time, pat never could. He became withdrawn, depressed. Doctors told him he would ultimately go blind. Take off your ears for me for a second. Reporter desperation led him to dr. Eduardo rodriguez at nyus langdon medical center. The reality is we can make you much worse than you are now. If this were not to work, weve actually made you worse than you were before. So you completely understand this, right . Oh, yeah. Reporter willing to risk his life. Its in gods hands. It will happen when hes ready for it to happen. Reporter the father of five well aware that his surgery would only be possible with another familys loss. I pray for them daily because i cannot imagine losing somebody at a young age and then having to be asked to give what theyre asking to give. Reporter it took two years to find the right donor, nancy millars son david. Because face transplants are still experimental, they first needed nancy to agree. When the doctors asked me if i would donate his face i said, of course. And of course at the time i was thinking just parts of his face. And they said, no, we mean the whole face. And they looked at me and they i said, of course. I mean, no hesitation. It didnt matter. Reporter just two days later pat is wheeled into surgery. It takes 12 hours to remove the donors face. Face is going to the other room now. Reporter dr. Rodriguez spaerls into patricks o. R. It will take another 14 hours to complete this surgery. Back in the donors room, another team of surgeons rushes in. There are other lives on the line. Is that the heart out . Hearts out. Reporter in operating rooms across the city, four other patients are being prepped for their own lifesaving operations. Among those saved on this day, two young boys. And a 58yearold woman who had all been desperately waiting for transplants. Every day, 22 americans die waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Nationally, only 50 of eligible adults are even registered as organ donors. We have a crisis. We call it a crisis in the u. S. How many organs was david able to donate . He donated the heart, liver and kidneys. Also donated bone and skin and corneas. Reporter bone and tissue donations could have saved or improved the lives of up to 50 people, all from a single organ donor, david rodabaugh. Its been over a year since youve been here . Yeah. Reporter its been a tough year. While she was grieving her sons death she was also battling cancer. Now shes back in new york for the First Time Since he passed away. Do you feel him here . Yeah. I do. I feel him everywhere. He used to walk up behind me and put his big ape arms around me and just just sway back and forth and say, i love you, mommy. You were my life, you were my everything. Hed always just bend over and kiss me on the forehead. Wed reciprocate. As soon as hed leave that would be the last thing id do. Reporter tomorrow nancy is going to meet the people whose lives were saved by davids organs, including pat. I just want to kiss his forehead. Reporter the next morning a boisterous group of grateful families excitedly wait to meet nancy. How do you tell somebody youve never met that you love them . You know, its just we just want to say thank you. Reporter one by one, they get that chance. Hi. My names nancy. Whats your name . Nicholas. You are gorgeous. Look at you. Could i have a big hug . I have to say thank you. I have to let you know how much your decision has changed our life. Do you skateboard . Skate . Oh, yeah. Rollerblade . You know i love you. And you dont even know me. Reporter three families now intertwined with nancys. They told me i wasnt going to get a heart. I wasnt going to give up. I said, it will come for me. You made me something. Can i open it now . I would love to hear your heart. Oh my god. Press down. So strong. We would like to thank you once again for the wonderful gift you have given us. That you guys will forever be in our hearts. God bless you. When we come back, pat hardisons 15month journey to say thank you. Hopefully shes not going to regret her decision of doing this. And the moment pat and nancy come facetoface. This is in many ways the big moment about to walk down the stairs. Whats going through your mind . Here i come. When nightline returns. Ital after a dvt blood clot, i sure had a lot to think about. What about the people i care about . Including this little girl. And what if this happened again . I was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me . So i asked my doctor. And he recommended eliquis. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. Yes, eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Both made me turn around my thinking. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made eliquis the right treatment for me. Ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. More doing chores for dad per roll more earning something you love per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50 longer than the leading ordinary brand. So you get more life per roll. Bounty, the quicker picker upper mone hundredts thousand times a day, sending oxygen to my muscles. Again so i can lift even the most demanding weight. Take care of all your most important parts with centrum. Now verified non gmo and gluten free. We met a mother heartbroken by the death of her son. Turning her tragedy into hope for another by donating her sons face. A year after that unprecedented transplant, shes about to meet the courageous firefighter who received it. Once again, my nightline coanchor juju chang. Reporter after more than a decade of standing out, his face scarred by fire beautiful day. God has blessed us with a beautiful day. Reporter former fireman pat hardison is finally blending in. Im just a normal guy walking down the street now. Here we go. Reporter his first glimpse of this new reality just nine days after the most extensive face transplant ever performed. Just take a close look at it. Reporter looking in a mirror for the first time. An unfamiliar face staring back. You see your hair growing . Reporter the outward signs of the pain and torment he lived with for so long are now gone. In the 15 months that followed he made incredible recovery. His new face taking shape over his bone structure, his brow and cheek bones. Im glad to meet you, you look fabulous. Reporter pats been back home in mississippi for a year. A dad in his 40s looking more like an older brother with his new youthful face. Im like a newman. A shiny, brandnew penny. Reporter patricks transformation is much more than skin deep. Every day hes reclaiming pieces of his life that were lost in the fire. I was in a prison of my own home. Now im able to do everything that i want to do. He doesnt just sit at home anymore. He actually gets out and talks to people. Now hes just like a normal person. Happy birthday to you when i look into my kids eyes i see happy innocence their eyes because they see how happy i am. Now were able to go on vacations. A small thing like getting into a vehicle, going to a movie, things i couldnt do before. Its a miracle. A godgiven miracle. Reporter with all the mesmerizing progress hes made theres still one person he has yet to thank, the donors mother. Im ready to meet her. She has had some very hard times. Im ready whenever shes ready. And it will be a great day when i meet her. That looks perfect. Reporter now more than a year and a half later, nancy is finally ready. If my health was better wed have done this a long time ago. Reporter her battle with cancer finally behind her. My eyelashes and eyebrows just came back. How are you feeling today . Good . A little nervous. Its going to be a very emotional day. Hopefully shes not going to regret her decision of doing this. Okay. No more tears. Look at you. Look at him move slow down. Oh, patrick. Thank you for being so strong and so healthy. Thank you for risking your life to do this. When i knew you were a firefighter, i knew you had the strength to go through this, i had no hesitation. Look at your face. Look at patricks face. Its beautiful. You are beautiful. How do you feel . I feel great. He and i both have the same little scar right here. May i kiss your forehead . Yeah. Reporter a poignant ritual between mother and son now shared with patrick. Thank you. Thank you. May i look at you . Do you mind . No, i dont mind at all. You got his little beauty mark. You got hair. Look at this. The ears. Not as long as he kept it but its there. Do you have holes . My kids kid me all the time about earrings. Especially my boys. Dad, youve got to wear earrings now. No, son. Reporter the consummate family man severally expanding his family. Im as proud of you as i was of my own son. Thank you. And thank you. For making it through all of this. My kids have a lot to do with that. I wanted to see them grow up, see my daughters get married. Reporter living out every fathers wish, his legacy now forever intertwined with nancys. Youre a gift to us because youre able to to carry david on for us. Correct. Its not davids face, its your face. When i talked to dr. Rodriguez, i said, its patricks face, and tell him, only happy tears. The best day of my life was the day david was born. This is the secondbest day of my life. Reporter the future is bright for these recipients. But across the country there are more than 100,000 people waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Waiting for their own donors. Someone like dave and nancy whose courageous decisions gave others a second chance. Thats good stuff. Our profound thanks to pat and nan nan nancy, everyone at live on new york, and the team at nyu langon medical center. Well be right back. This special edition of nightline is brought to you by volkswagen. Lemonheads schoolhouse rock zero really can be a hero. 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And so would everyone else. Robitussin 12 hour delivers fast, powerful cough relief that lasts up to 12 hours. Robitussin 12 hour cough relief, because its never just a cough. [ it[ goat bleat ] by peggy lee playing ] [ crow caws, music continues ] this is gonna be awesome when it comes to buying a house. Trulia knows the house is only half of it. And with 34 map overlays like playgrounds, demographics, schools, and more. You can find the right house and the right neighborhood for you. Trulia. The house is only half of it. As 2016 ends, all of us here at nightline wish you and your family a happy new year. Take a moment to acknowledge the many people of our family who make our broadcast possible. Hey, everybody. Were just kicking off a brand new season of millionaire, and were doing it from our new home here at ballys las vegas. I cannot wait to make somebody rich. So lets play who wants to be a millionaire. [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] hey, everybody, welcome to the show. You guys ready to play millionaire . Me too. Todays first contestant is a restaurant server who works the night shift. A Million Dollars would completely change her life. So lets do it. From essington, pennsylvania, please welcome susan taylor. [cheers and applause] hi, susan. Hi. [inaudible] [giggles] welcome to the show. Oh, my goodness. You all right . Yes, yeah. Its good to meet you. Oh, my gosh, yeah. Its good to meet you, finally well, ii know. I feel like this has been too long. Weve finally come together. [laughter] um, a Million Dollars. You work the night shift at a diner. I work late, and im tired, and i need to win some money so i can make a change. Thats why im here. I would think, a Million Dollars . You could take a few days off. Iyo, a Million Dollars . Yeah, yeah, i could find Something Else to do. For sure. Well, lets do it. Let me tell you what youre up against today. 14 questions. The money values growing from 500 all the way up to that 1 million. [cheers and applause] every question you answer correctly moves you one step closer to that top prize