This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Hospitals celebrate anniversary of first bilateral hand transplant in child
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Penn Medicine and Shriner’s Hospitals for Children celebrated the 1-year anniversary of their collaboration on the first bilateral hand transplant on a pediatric patient.
The patient, nine-year-old Zion Harvey, can now throw a baseball over home plate, swing a bat, throw a football, dress himself and pick up objects 1 year after receiving a bilateral hand transplant, according to a press release.
“He’s gaining independence and that is the whole reason why we do this,” L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and a professor of plastic surgery in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Hand Transplantation Program at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), said in the press release. “Zion’s remarkable progress would not have been possible without a large team of multidisciplinary specialists, and the foundational work our hand transplant team at Penn Medicine has built, starting with our first adult hand transplant in 2011.”
Years ago, Harvey required amputations of his hands and feet and required a kidney transplant after a serious infection. Last year, the multidisciplinary surgical team transplanted donor hands and forearms onto Harvey. The Gift Life Donor Program coordinated the effort to locate a suitable donor.
Harvey has spent up to 8 hours per day in rehabilitation at Kennedy Krieger Institute. According to the release, neuroscientists from CHOP are conducting brain imaging and evaluations to assist Harvey with his mental and physical rehabilitation. The team is linking Harvey’s functional MRI scans to his therapy. The goal is for the patient’s primary motor cortex to catch up with other fully developed areas.
Reference: