NEW YORK (AP) — A New York hospital says a volunteer firefighter has received the most extensive face transplant ever performed. The Mississippi man was badly burned in a fire 14 years ago.

The surgery, announced on Monday, took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Center. Forty-one-year-old Patrick Hardison is still getting physical therapy in New York but plans to return home in time for Thanksgiving.

He said he looks forward to being able to drive again, with his eyesight restored to normal.

The transplant covers his skull, reaching over his face and down to his collarbones in front, and down far enough in back that it leaves only a tiny patch of his own hair at the bottom.

Hardison was injured in 2001 when the roof of a burning home collapsed.