Iraq war veteran receives double-arm transplant
BALTIMORE: The first US soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war has received a doublearm transplant.
Brendan Marrocco, 26, had the operation on Dec 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
“I just want to get the most out of these arms, and just as goals come up, knock them down and take it absolutely as far as I can,” said Marrocco.
The New Yorker spoke at a news conference at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was joined by surgeons who performed the operation.
After he was wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, Marrocco said, he felt fine using prosthetic legs, but he hated not having arms.
“You talk with your hands, you do everything with your hands, basically, and when you don’t have that, you’re kind of lost,” he said.
Marrocco said his chief desire is to drive the black Dodge Charger.
“I used to love to drive,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to just getting back to that, and just becoming an athlete again.”
Although he doesn’t expect to excel at soccer, his favorite sport, Marrocco said he’d like to swim and compete in a marathon.
Doctors predict that Marrocco will recover much of his arm and hand use in two to three years.
The procedure was only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever done in the United States.
The 13-hour operation on Dec 18 was led by Dr W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Hopkins.