Yahoo - AFP,
July 29, 2015
Eight-year-old
Zion Harvey of Baltimore, Maryland with his newly transplanted
hands (AFP Photo)
|
New York
(AFP) - An eight-year-old American has become the world's youngest recipient of
a transplant of both hands, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced
Tuesday.
Surgeons
operated for 10 hours to carry out the incredibly complicated surgery on
Baltimore native Zion Harvey.
He
previously had both his hands and feet amputated and had a kidney transplant
following a major infection.
The
smiling, precocious youngster had learned to eat, write and even play video
games without hands.
Now he says
he is looking forward to being able to throw a football with his own hands.
It took a
team of 40 doctors, nurses and other staff from plastic and reconstructive
surgery, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology and radiology, to pull off the
pioneering surgery.
Surgeons
first painstakingly attached bone, then veins. Once the blood was circulating,
surgeons connected tendons, muscles and nerves.
"Zion's
kidney transplant following his infection made him a candidate for transplant
because he was already taking anti-rejection medication," said Benjamin
Chang, co-director of CHOP's Hand Transplantation Program.
Harvey is
receiving daily anti-rejection medications. Doctors said he should be able to
return home to Baltimore in a few weeks.
"This
surgery was the result of years of training, followed by months of planning and
preparation by a remarkable team," said L Scott Levin.
"The
success of Penn's first bilateral hand transplant on an adult, performed in
2011, gave us a foundation to adapt the intricate techniques and coordinated
plans required to perform this type of complex procedure on a child."
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