Cancer victim has fresh hope in life.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A Massachusetts man who lost his penis to cancer got new hope in life after Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston successfully completed the US’s first ever penis transplant on him, reported The New York Times.
According to the report, Thomas Manning, a 64-year-old bank courier from Halifax went through a 15-hour surgery on May 8 and 9 during which the doctors transplanted the penis of a deceased donor.
The doctors who performed the surgery on Manning has confirmed that the transplanted penis has started functioning and that he will be able to urinate normally within a week and within a few weeks or a month’s time he can regain his sexual function.
As of now only two countries have dared to do a penis transplant. One was a failed attempt in China back in 2006 and a successful one in South Africa in 2014, in which the patient later fathered a child.
The successful story of penis transplant comes at a time when the doctors at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine is planning for the same on veterans who injured their penis during their service. According to the US Defence medical records since 2001 and 2013, more than 1,300 men have suffered injuries to their genitals in Iraq or Afghanistan.
There are also reports that the suicide rate among officers with genital damage are high but the defence department does not want them to undergo a surgery that has not yet been proven as they have already sacrificed a lot.
According to the doctors of Massachusetts General Hospital, they dissected the organ from four to six deceased donors in order to practice removing the delicate tissues for the transplant.