Zion Harvey is a 10-year-old boy that is now living the dream with his two hands that he received in July of 2015. He has fulfilled his baseball dream and is now able to swing a baseball bat around. It is safe to say that Zion is the first ever child to recieve a successful Pediatric Bilateral hand transplant. You can never be to safe and therefor he is on life long medication so that his body will not reject the transplant. Unfortanantly the medication increases the risk of infection, and cancer to develop later on in life.
Zion before his hand transplant
At age 2, Zion lost his hands and feet to a life-threatening infection that caused multi-organ system failure. Zion said that "I don't know what a child's hand looks like" he also states that he doesn't even know what color it should be. Luckily today he can tell you exactly what it looks like and feels like, thanks to a team of doctors that put in the time and effort to make this transplant a success.
At age 4, after two years of dialysis, he received a kidney transplant from his mother. His mother says that he has been so strong through all of it and that some adults wouldn't even be able to handle going through what Zion has gone through. Dr. Christine McAndrew, an Orthopaedic Surgeon, said, "We have followed Zion probably for a year and a half now, and done extensive evaluations to see if he was a good candidate for a hand transplant." To an anxious mother and a hopeful child, they received the good news just three months later that Zion was eligible for a hand transplant.
Zion said, "So when I get these hands, I will be proud of what hands I get." Zion was grateful no matter what the outcome.
The doctors were also anxious whether or not the transplant would be a success. One doctor even said that as far as he knows it has never been attempted on a child. Zion at eight years old had been chosen to become the recipient of the world's first Pediatric Bilateral hand transplant.
One of the Doctors asked Zion why he wants hands and he said that he intends to swing on the monkey bars and the doctors hoped that it would be possible because he is a child and he should be able to do those things.
The transplant took place in July 2015 just three months after being put on the waiting list. There was a big team of Doctors working throughout the night.
The operation had gone on for ten hours. The operation was a success all they had to do now was to see if his body accepted the transplant and if his hands would be able to function.
Where is Zion Harvey now?
It has been two years since Zion went under the knife to have two hands attached to his arms. He is now able to write and feed himself and even dress. A little after his surgery Zion said that he would like to write a letter to the family of the boy who had made it possible for him to have these hands and he would like to say thank you.
Zion has an amazing life ahead of him full of opportunity, and he too hopes that the Doctors that helped him would help others kids have hands too.
