Doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia performed the double hand transplant earlier this month on an 8-year old boy named Zion Harvey.
Advertisement
The boy, from the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills, Maryland, received the transplant earlier this month at the children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, although doctors have not revealed publicly the operation almost 11 hours until this week.
During the operation, the donor’s hands and forearms were attached by connecting bone, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, tendons and skin. At age 2 he had both his hands and feet amputated after a sepsis infection caused him to develop gangrene.
Post-surgery, Zion continues to receive his immunosuppressant medication while being cared for by both a kidney transplant team and his hand transplant surgical team. Physicians hope and pray that his new hands will enable many more milestones and success in life, including his wish to throw a football. Harvey was an ideal transplant candidate due to his previous medical condition. “So I felt like I was willing to take this risk for him, and if he wants to be able to play horizontal bars and football”.
“When I met Zion, I said to him – and I didn’t know what the response would be”.
An 8-year-old has become the first child in the world to receive a bilateral hand transplant.
“The ability to plan and carry out this type of surgery is testament to the skill, expertise, surgical innovation, and passion for excellence available here at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia”, said N. Scott Adzick, M.D., CHOP’s surgeon-in-chief.
In a video filmed for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia before the surgery Zion seemed optimistic – no matter what the outcome of the surgery.
He also had to undergo a procedure to transplant one of his kidneys, as the damage done by the infection left one of them completely destroyed. It is a new area of transplant surgery. In the documentary below, you can see the moment blood begins to flow into Zion’s new hands.
“I just want to say this, never give up on your dreams it will come true”, said Zion.
At a press conference, Zion said he would not have been upset if the surgery had not been successful.
“Pick up my little sister from daycare, and wait for her to run into my hands and I pick her up and spin her around,” he said.
Advertisement
As L. Scott Levin holds his hand, Zion Harvey moves his fingers. The recipient of the first child double hand transplant is now spending his days working with occupational therapists as he learns how to use his new hands.
