All grins, Baltimore boy becomes 1st to receive new hands

[lamekilla]

My coworker was showing this story to me a couple days ago and I was tearing up (was trying not let her see me with the wet eyes cause I was tryna smash that night ) but man what an incredible story and more incredible kid!

 

[rook]

It's incredible what that kid has had to go through that young..really makes me get mad at myself for stressing over the little things.

 

[Olympus]

Awesome to see the sentiment shared in this thread. There's an abundance of tragic/shocking news articles in General.

I think it's important to report on the good stuff too even if it doesn't spur the same heated debates other topics have. Especially an advancement such as this. Just remarkable how far we've come!

 

[Bert.]

Saw a snipit of this on IG

was amazing to see

So will the hands grow and be able to function properly over time? How come this hasn't been done before

 

[pip777]

Just.................awesome. With all the mess that is happening in this world, things like this restores my faith that there is good in this world.

 

[dmbrhs]

Saw a snipit of this on IG

was amazing to see

So will the hands grow and be able to function properly over time? How come this hasn't been done before

Sounds like it has been done before, but this is the first pediatric transplant. It's "easier" with adults because you don't have to worry about growth.

 

[Olympus]

Saw a snipit of this on IG

was amazing to see

So will the hands grow and be able to function properly over time? How come this hasn't been done before

"The issue with children is they have areas of bone called growth plates," Levin said. "We had to be very careful when we attached the donor hands to Zion that we did not violate or injure the growth plates because we want his hands to grow and lengthen."

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/boy-8-gets-double-hand-transplant-surgical-first-n399811

So I'm assuming they will grow with him. Or should, at least. One of the sad parts is, the lifetime of medication he needs could increase his chances of infection and cancer. Still gets the transplant. Incredible.

There was a guy back in 2011 at Penn that had a transplant like this that actually helped them prepare for this.

 

[dmbrhs]

"The issue with children is they have areas of bone called growth plates," Levin said. "We had to be very careful when we attached the donor hands to Zion that we did not violate or injure the growth plates because we want his hands to grow and lengthen."


http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/boy-8-gets-double-hand-transplant-surgical-first-n399811

So I'm assuming they will grow with him. Or should, at least. One of the sad parts is, the lifetime of medication he needs could increase his chances of infection and cancer. Still gets the transplant. Incredible.


There was a guy back in 2011 at Penn that had a transplant like this that actually helped them prepare for this.

The reality of transplants is that, technically, no transplanted organ is accepted by the new body. Doesn't matter where, when, or how you got the new part, you're on drugs the rest of your life to prevent rejection. This kid will just have to be on them literally his entire life.

 

[Olympus]

Yup, every body is 100% unique to that individual.

 

[flacobey]

what an amazing kid. stories like this make me wish i went the med school route. I can only imagine how those docs and nurses feel being apart of something like that.

 

[af1 1982]

CHOP

Nothing but awesome stuff coming out of that hospital

 

[concordefliteschool]

Shed some tears amazing

 

[Quincy McCall]

Don't want any kids but damn, that hit me 

 

[licensed to ball]

Absolutely amazing.

I want to show as many people as I can. We take a lot of things for granted.

Happy for little Zion

 

[dipsetgeneral]

Wow.