Amazing

[Content Note: Illness; surgery.]

Last night on the news, I saw a story about this remarkable little boy who just received new hands during a groundbreaking surgery. Eight-year-old Zion Harvey lost both his hands and both his feet following a serious and mysterious infection that he got at two years old. He also needed a kidney transplant, for which he mother volunteered. The transplant was successful, and, because he was already on anti-rejection drugs for his kidney, he was a great candidate for the dual hand transplant surgery, the first in the world, done by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who offered to do the surgery for no cost beyond what their insurance would cover.

Zion was as active as any other eight-year-old, using prosthetics on his legs and even learning to play video games and use a smartphone with no hands. But he really wanted hands to be able to do all the things he couldn't do without them. So when the opportunity came up, his mother assessed whether she thought the surgery would be safe for him and then asked him if he wanted to do it. He did.

During the operation, a 40-person medical team, including 12 surgeons, used steel plates and screws to attach the old and new bones. Surgeons then painstakingly reconnected Zion's arteries, veins, muscles, tendons and nerves.

The entire operation took nearly 11 hours.

"He woke up smiling," Dr. L. Scott Levin, who heads the hand transplant program, said Tuesday at a news conference at the hospital. "There hasn't been one whimper, one tear, one complaint."

Zion himself was in attendance at the news conference. His forearms heavily bandaged, he was beaming as he told everyone about his new hands.

During the event, Zion asked the many family members in attendance to stand and be recognized, telling them: "I want to say to you guys, thank you for helping me through this bumpy road."

He said that, for him, "family means trust hope support and if you fall down they always catch you."

His mother, Pattie Ray, called her son "amazing."

"For me it is a blessing," she said. "I have been blessed with a son and an angel. He is my strength."

Now that Zion has his new hands, he's most excited to be able to play with his little sister. He's also hoping for a new dog.

"I'll take care of it," he told his mother after the press conference. "You don't have to walk it. I will take care of it."

Zion is currently in physical therapy, and his casts will come off soon.

[CN: video autoplays at link] Here is the NBC News report I saw last night, if you are able and want to view it.

I am just overwhelmed by this entire story. In awe of the medical advances that made this possible, thrilled for Zion, hopeful that the surgery works and that he remains free of complications, deeply admiring of his mother, who just seems like about the most awesome person on the planet, and happy for his whole family. Wow.

Not everyone who is missing a hand or hands via birth or circumstance would want a surgery like this, and certainly not everyone has access to it, and nor should anyone ever be made to feel less than if they don't want or can't get a surgery like the one Zion got. But Zion wanted it, and because he was willing to subject himself to an extensive surgery with lots of (continuing) risks, he (and his incredible medical team) have moved us one step closer toward making sure this sort of surgery becomes available to more people who want it.