First child ever to receive double hand transplant can now write and throw a baseball
Zion Harvey was only two years old, when he had lost his hands and feet in a bacterial infection. Today the nine-year-old can, however, write and throw a baseball, thanks to the new hands he received last year in July. In a historic first, Zion has become the first child to receive a successful double hand transplant.
After a 10-hour-long surgery that involved a team of 40 medical professionals, including surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists; Zion had received new hands, and is recovering fast.
During the surgery, steel plates and screws were used to join the old and new bones, and the arteries, veins, muscles, tendons and nerves were delicately reconnected. A year since his surgery, Zion is recovering. "His brain had to be re-taught how to fire those muscles again," one of the doctors told CNN.
"I feel happy about my new hands, and I don't feel different. I like now that I can throw a football further than when I didn't have hands... My next goal: convince Mom to let me play football," suburban Baltimore boy told Daily Mail in an interview.
Zion's mother, Pattie Ray, had earlier donated her kidney for her son. The kidney, too, was lost in the same infection. Zion uses prosthetic legs to walk, run, and play with his friends.
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