As Dr. Scott Levin holds his hand, double hand transplant recipient Zion Harvey moves his fingers during a news conference Tuesday at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. First, the bones in his arm were connected with steel plates and screws.
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When the blood started to flow through the reconnected blood vessels, the medical team repaired and rejoined each of the muscles and tendons, reattached the nerves and closed the surgical sites.
Zion, a bright and precocious child, contracted an infection years ago that resulted in the amputation of his hands and feet. When he was 4, Zion had a kidney transplant from his mother. He has learned to use his new hands to write, eat, and play video games, and has been attending school.
But now doctors hope he will gain full movement in his new hands after undergoing intensive physiotherapy.
An eight-year-old US boy has become the world’s youngest recipient of a transplant of both hands.
The boy will spend several more weeks in the hospital’s rehabilitation unit before being discharged to his home in Baltimore.
Only a dozen or potential donors become available every year and Zion’s doctors say he was fortunate to find a suitable donor nearly immediately.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Zion previously had a kidney transplant, so he is already taking anti-rejection drugs, though the amount would likely have to be increased because of the hands.
Until now, just 25 full hand transplants have been done globally.
“My favorite thing [will be to] wait for her to run into my hands as I pick her up and spin her around”, he said, according to NBC News.
Kozin, MD, chief of staff for Shriners Hospital for Children – Philadelphia, said in the release.
“I want to say to you guys thank you, for helping me through this bumpy road” said Zion, receiving rapturous applause from the audience.
“The success of 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”, Levin noted.
His recovery includes visits with occupational therapist multiple times per day to practice moving his new hands, something he can’t yet do without their help.
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“I’m going to share with our audience this afternoon a huge step forward in transplantation, the world of transplantation in pediatric surgery, in this relatively new field called vascularized composite allo transplant, which is the transplant of hands and in other cases faces”.
