When he was only two years old, Zion Harvey suffered an infection in his limbs that forced doctors to amputate both his hands and both feet to save his life. In 2015, with eight years he was subjected to a pioneering intervention in the world: the first double hand transplant performed on a child. An operation that had already been carried out successfully in adults, but never in children, being a much more complex and risky process.
Today, two years later, you can say that the transplant has been a success. The little one is able to write, feed, go to the bathroom and get dressed without help. Gestures that were everyday for any child his age, but he could not do.
The intervention, which was prepared for two years and lasted almost eleven hours, was performed by four coordinated teams of doctors of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). One of the issues that most concerned the specialists was the risk of administering immunosuppressants to the child, a medication that reduces the body's defenses to decrease the body's reaction to the transplanted organ (rejection), but which, on the other hand, causes a increased risk of infections
But years before Zion had also had to undergo a kidney transplant, and had to take the medication to avoid possible rejection of the organ, so doctors thought that the child could be a good candidate to perform double hand transplants.
After the intervention, he had to fight eight rejection processes during the first year, but managed to overcome them thanks to the constant adjustment of drug treatment. Only six days after the operation he began receiving rehabilitation therapy and occasional therapy to learn how to use his new hands. This is how this little champion, who is now ten years old, got to be the first child in the world to undergo this intervention.
He can't be happier. In the video above we can see it at all times smiling and grateful for the opportunity he had to have two hands and be able to do the things that any child his age does.
