14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this month, surgeons at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and their colleagues at Penn Medicine operated on an 8-year-old boy named Zion Harvey and transplanted both left and right donor hands and forearms onto his body.
The boy lost all his limbs years ago to a severe infection. The same infection also badly damaged his kidneys, and so the doctors who were then looking after him had to rush him into surgery and give him a donor organ to save his life.
Although limb transplants are no longer a novelty, the surgical intervention that saw doctors fit 8-year-old Zion Harvey with donor hands and forearms is nonetheless hailed as a world first.
This is because such a transplant had never before been performed on a patient as young as this boy. In a nutshell, this intervention was the first ever bilateral hand transplant on a child.
“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,” says surgeon-in-chief N. Scott Adzick.
The surgery was no walk in the park
Before operating on Zion Harvey, the surgical team spent months preparing for the intervention. Even so, the bilateral hand transplant took about 10 hours to complete.
For starters, the 8-year-old had to be subjected to a series of tests and evaluations to make sure that he was a suitable transplant candidate. Since he was already taking medication to keep his body from rejecting his donor kidney, the boy was approved to also receive donor hands and forearms.
Doctors attached the donor limbs to the boy's body by connecting bones, tendons, blood vessels, muscles, nerves and skin. First, the bones were fixed in place using steel plates and screws. Then, blood vessels were connected and muscles and tendons were rejoined. Last on the list were the nerves.
The surgery went well and the boy is now on the road to recovery. To keep his body from rejecting the new limbs, the 8-year-old must take medication meant to suppress his immune system on a daily basis.
To have an easier time growing accustomed with his new limbs and learn how to control them, Zion Harvey must also undergo hand therapy several times a day. Should all go well, the boy will be discharged from hospital and return home in Baltimore sometime later this year.
The boy cannot wait to play football
The medical team who operated on him and who are now closely monitoring his recovery describe 8-year-old Zion Harvey as a happy child who, despite having lost his limbs at an early age, learned to make do without them.
“A happy and outgoing child, he has adapted well to life without hands, learning to eat, write and even play video games. He figured out ways to perform most of the activities other kids his age can do,” they say.
With the help of prosthetics designed to fit his body, the 8-year-old can walk, run and even jump. Now that he has also received a bilateral hand transplant, he says he cannot wait for the day he will be able to throw a football.
