Search Here

Brendan Marrocco, a 26-year-old Iraq war veteran, has successfully undergone double-arm transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital, according to media reports.

Marrocco lost both his arms and legs due to a powerful bomb that struck his vehicle in Easter in the year 2009, The Washington Post reported. Doctors performed the rare double-arm transplant on Dec. 18 last year. The procedure took many hours during which his arms - bones, muscles and skin - were joined with the arm of a deceased donor.

"He was really excited to get new arms," said Alex Marrocco, Brendan's father, The Associated Press reported. Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Johns Hopkins, led the team of researchers that conducted the transplant. And, Brendan's double-arm transplant is only the seventh of its kind to be performed in the United States.

Long road to recovery

Although transplanted hands and legs never regain full functionality, Lee said that patients do learn to tie shoelaces and eat with chopsticks, The Washington Post reported. Even learning how to use the new limbs will probably take years, as the nerves grow slowly.

"The maximum speed is an inch a month for nerve regeneration," Lee told The Associated Press. "We're easily looking at a couple years."

Marrocco's father said that he will spend about three to four months at John Hopkins Hospital and then return to a military hospital for further therapy. His handicapped-friendly home in New York was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy recently, The Associated Press reported.