Rare transplant gives quadruple amputee two new hands
A 65-year-old quadruple amputee has received two new hands in a rare double transplant operation, Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital said on Friday.
Richard Mangino got the two hands last week in a 12-hour transplant procedure by a team of more than 40 doctors, nurses and other medical staff, the hospital said.
Mangino said he’s adjusting to the new hands gradually and said now he 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 wheel chair with his arms and hands propped on stack of pillows, Mangino said he prayed for the ability to touch his grandsons’ faces, stroke their hair and teach them to throw a ball
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 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 sense of touch in six to nine months with ongoing therapy to help him learn to grasp and pick things up…