BOSTON – A 65-year-old quadruple amputee has received new hands in a rare double transplant operation, Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital said yesterday.
A team of more than 40 doctors, nurses and other medical staff attached the hands to Richard Mangino during a 12-hour transplant procedure last week.
Mr Mangino said he’s adjusting to the new hands gradually and now won’t have to “perform a miracle” every day to do simple things like make coffee and get dressed.
Speaking at a news conference seated in a wheelchair with his arms and hands propped on a stack of pillows, Mr Mangino said he prayed for the ability to touch his grandsons’ faces, stroke their hair and teach them to throw a ball.
Mr Mangino, from Revere, Massachusetts, lost his arms below the elbows and legs below the knees after contracting sepsis, a bloodstream infection, in 2002.
The complicated surgery included transplanting skin, tendons, muscles, ligaments, bones and blood vessels on both forearms and hands, the hospital said.
Doctors said Mr Mangino independently moved fingers just days after surgery and called the results a “resounding success”. His recovery will take many months and doctors expect him to regain the sense of touch in six to nine months with ongoing therapy to help him learn to grasp and pick things up. – (Reuters)