Philadelphia Best

Zion Harvey: Double hand transplant boy plays baseball
Zion Harvey: The boy with the double hand transplant
Two years on, Zion is doing well.
His doctors say one of the most promising things they have seen during the recovery period is how well Zion’s brain has responded “despite
the absence of hands during a developmental period of rich fine motor development between the ages of two and eight years”.
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A US boy who made history as the world’s first child to have a double hand transplant is now swinging a baseball bat well, his doctors say.
It is two years since Zion Harvey, who is now 10, was given new hands, and his doctors say they are amazed by and incredibly proud of his progress.
Dr Sandra Amaral, a member of the team treating Zion at the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia, told the BBC that Zion continues to make significant progress.
At the age of four, after two years of dialysis, Zion had a kidney transplant using a kidney donated by his mother Pattie Ray.
Zion was already on this medication for his kidney
and after 18 months of close assessment, the medical team was confident a double-hand transplant could benefit him.
Dr Benjamin Chang, co-director of the hand transplant programme at the hospital, recalls: “We wanted to really make sure
that this was going to work for our patient and work for a lifetime.”

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