German farmer gets world's first double arm transplant

[Hope And Change]

German farmer gets world's first double arm transplant

Bastian Reichert, Associated Press in Munich
The Guardian, Saturday August 2 2008
Article history

A German farmer who lost both arms in an accident has been fitted with two new limbs in the first double arm transplant, his surgeons said yesterday.

Reiner Gradinger, medical director at the Munich University clinic, said doctors spent 15 hours on July 25 and 26 grafting the new limbs on to the 54-year-old man, whose arms were severed just below the shoulder in the accident in 2002.

"The reattachment appears up to now to have proceeded optimally," said Gradinger, adding that the patient was recovering well.

In London, Keith Rigg, vice president of the British Transplantation Society, confirmed that the operation was the world's first double arm transplant.

The farmer's name was not released, nor was the identity of the arm donor, a man who died shortly before the surgery.


more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/02/germany

[BlooInBloo]

1. Good for him. (And another first America doesn't get.)

[newfie11]

2. And he won't loose everything trying to pay for it.

He has the health care we need in the US.

[BlooInBloo]

3. True that.

[Orrex]

4. Only fifteen hours? Holy moley--that's amazing!

I hope that he doesn't have too many issue with rejection and that his PT goes well.