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8-Year-Old Makes History As First Pediatric Dual Hand Transplant Recipient

Posted by samzenpus on from the new-hands dept.

ErnieKey writes: While there have been several hand transplants that have successfully taken place over the past decade or so, a little boy in Maryland, named Zion Harvey has become the first successful pediatric dual hand transplant recipient. After losing both hands and feet due to infection when he was 2 years old, doctors were able to successfully transplant new hands onto the little boy, thanks in part to modern-day 3d printing technology. "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," Dr. L. Scott Levin, chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at Penn Medicine and director of the hand transplantation program at Children's Hospital, said in a statement.

1 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Let's hope .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That the family has good insurance, (I assume USA from the article) otherwise the family will be paying off those hands for LIFE!

    Isn't it terrible that this is the first thing I think of when someone has major surgery - i.e. how are they going to pay for it?

    Heh. Captcha: rewarded