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Boy, 8, ready to play ball with new hands

He's world's first child to get double-hand transplant

The Columbian
Published: July 28, 2015, 5:00pm
2 Photos
Double-hand transplant recipient eight-year-old Zion Harvey arrives to a news conference with his mother Pattie Ray Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Philadelphia. Surgeons said Harvey of Baltimore who lost his limbs to a serious infection,  has become the youngest patient to receive a double-hand transplant.
Double-hand transplant recipient eight-year-old Zion Harvey arrives to a news conference with his mother Pattie Ray Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Philadelphia. Surgeons said Harvey of Baltimore who lost his limbs to a serious infection, has become the youngest patient to receive a double-hand transplant. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA — Sitting on his bed at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the first child in the world to receive a double-hand transplant talked about his big plans.

Zion Harvey, 8, of Baltimore, wants to climb the monkey bars. Throw a football. Play the guitar. Maybe even become a doctor.

“But I’ll be the kind that doesn’t give shots,” he said with an impish grin on Monday.

On Tuesday afternoon, a team from Children’s and the University of Pennsylvania announced their early-July surgical tour de force, then introduced Zion, his mom, Pattie Ray, dad, Kevon Gant, and little sister, Zoe.

No child has ever received a transplant of a single hand, let alone two. Only about 60 people worldwide have undergone upper extremity transplants since the first one in France in 1998, according to the international registry.

These complex “composite” tissue transplants — which involve reattaching blood vessels, bones, nerves, muscles, and skin — remain rare because, unlike major organ replacements, they are not lifesaving. Yet patients must take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection, raising their risks of infection, some cancers, and other side effects.

Zion was uniquely suitable because he was already taking anti-rejection drugs to protect his kidney transplant.

The backstory: At age 2, a life-threatening bloodstream infection required the amputation of his hands and feet, and ruined his kidneys. At age 4, after years on dialysis, he received a kidney from his mother.

About two years ago, she took him to Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, which specializes in caring for kids with prosthetics like those he wears on his lower legs. There she learned about Penn’s hand transplant program.

“The doctor at Shriner’s thought Zion would be a perfect candidate,” recalled Ray, a nursing student at Baltimore Community College.

Zion’s precocious self-awareness and resilience also impressed the transplant team.

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