Boy Receives Groundbreaking Hand Transplants At CHOP

By ELIZABETH JANNEY

A Maryland boy became the youngest recipient of a double hand transplant, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced this week.

Eleven weeks ago, 8-year-old Zion Harvey of Owings Mills underwent surgery to get new hands at an operation at CHOP.

“When I met Zion, I said, ‘Why do you want hands?’” L. Scott Levin, director of the hospital’s hand transplant program, said in a video detailing the story. “He said, ‘I want to swing on the monkey bars.’”

There are only 15 children’s hands that become available annually, Levin said. He noted the difficulty families and organizations face as the hands come when another child is lost. Levin said it was “remarkable” that Harvey was put on the waiting list in April and within three months, hands became available.

“When I get these hands,” Harvey said, “I will be proud of what hands I get.”

With his new hands, Harvey says he wants to be able to pick up his little sister, NBC reported.

“I wasn’t always like this,” Harvey said before the surgery, in the video of his story . “When I was two, I had to have my hands cut off because I was sick.”

Harvey had sepsis, the Associated Press reported. Sepsis is a condition that causes inflammation throughout the body and can lead to organ failure, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Due to the infection, Harvey’s feet and hands had to be amputated as a toddler.

His mother donated her kidney to him when he was 4, after he had spent two years on dialysis treatments, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Because he is already taking medication to ensure he doesn’t reject an organ (the kidney), the hospital reported he was a good candidate for the hand transplant surgery.