Youngest ever patient to get such a transplant.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: An 8-year-old who lost his hands and feet to a serious infection has become the youngest patient to receive a double-hand transplant, surgeons said Tuesday.
Zion Harvey, from the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills, Md., received the transplant earlier this month at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, though doctors did not disclose the nearly 11-hour operation until this week.
According to the Washington Times, A 40-person medical team used steel plates and screws to attach the old and new bones. Surgeons then painstakingly reconnected Zion’s arteries, veins, muscles, tendons, and nerves.
Doctors say Zion will spend several weeks in physical rehab at the hospital before returning home. Two rows of relatives attended the news conference, and displaying a maturity beyond his years, Zin asked them to stand up and be recognized by those in attendance.
“I want to say to you guys, thank you for helping me through this bumpy road,” he said.
Zion’s mother, Patti Ray, told CBS News she thought long hard about whether her son should have the surgery. The same infection that claimed his limbs required him to have a kidney transplant when he was 4 years old.
“It was no more of a risk than a kidney transplant,” his mother said. “So I felt like I was willing to take that risk for him, if he wanted it — to be able to play monkey bars and football.”
The Children’s Hospital has graciously said it would not hold Zion’s family liable for any costs beyond that which may be covered by medical insurance, reported The Times.
“This is a monumental step,” said Levin, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Penn Medicine and director of the Hand Transplantation Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I hope personally we can help many more patients like Zion in the future,” he told the Baltimore Sun.