At a news conference, when asked if he feels any different, Zion said, “No, it feels the same because I never left who I was”. His hands and feet were amputated and he had to go on dialysis. Earlier this month, doctors from Penn Medicine joined the CHOP team in a 10-hour surgical transplant of two hands for Zion.
It is reported that a 40-member multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and other staff from plastic and reconstructive surgery, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, and radiology, participated in the ten-hour surgical operation.
The surgeons connected bone, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, tendons and skin. It was then that she was told about Dr. Levin and his hand transplant program at the The University of Pennsylvania. His forearms heavily bandaged, he was beaming as he told everyone about his new hands.
Doctors say the surgery is highly likely to be the start of further use of transplant surgery for children.
Zion Harvey lost his hands and feet to a serious infection when he was just two-years-old. Zion was a suitable candidate because he was already taking antirejection drugs for his kidney transplant. Hospital officials in Philadelphia believe Zion is the youngest person to undergo a double-hand transplant, which requires a lifetime of immune-suppressing drugs to ensure the body doesn’t reject the new limbs.
Zion Harvey, 8, of Baltimore, shows off his new hands after transplant surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on July 27, 2015. The mother agreed, while saying that it was ultimately his decision to make, because the operation posed no greater risk than the previous transplant.
AN EIGHT-year-old boy in America has become the youngest recipient of a double hand transplant. “There hasn’t been one whimper, one tear, one complaint”.
The now eight-year-old patient, Owings Mills native Zion Harvey, said that waking up with new hands felt “weird at first, but then good”. “I am extremely proud of Dr. Levin and his team for their courage, dedication and expertise, and appreciative to Zion and his family, whose bravery and trust in this clinical team is truly inspiring”.
Since the amputations, Zion has received prosthetic legs and learned how to eat, write and play video games.
“Some of my classmates don’t mean to say mean things to me but it slips out”, said Zion.
The surgeons are hopeful that Zion will go on to enjoy a normal life after his successful surgery. They do passive exercises, moving the hands for him, and active exercises where Harvey attempts to move his own fingers and the therapists help complete the task.
Harvey and his new hands are scheduled to return home to Baltimore in several weeks.
