US Soldier Gets Rare Double Arm Transplant

Brendan Marrocco lost all his limbs in a bomb in Iraq in 2009, but spoke to media Tuesday after receiving a rare double arm transplant, saying it's given him "hope for the future." Images are from the operating theater at Johns Hopkins Hospital during surgery in December, and excerpts from the news conference.

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4 months ago

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Health

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Brendan Marrocco

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United States of America, Maryland, Baltimore

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arm transplant

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SHOTLIST: BALTIMORE, JANUARY 29, 2013, SOURCE: CBS *NO RESALE for non-editorial purposes* - No Japan - No Free over-the-air broadcasters in Australia - No US cable news outlets, free over-the-air networks or stations, their websites and their mobile phone services SOUNDBITE 1 Brendan Marrocco (man), veteran who lost all limbs and has received a double arm transplant (English, 22 sec): "I can move my elbow. This is my elbow, the one I had before. I can rotate it a little bit. This arm (indicating right arm) is pretty much, not much movement at all -- not yet, at least. Hopefully, we're hopeful for the future to get some pretty good function out of it -- out of both of them." SOUNDBITE 2 Brendan Marrocco (man), veteran who lost all limbs and has received a double arm transplant (English, 17 sec): "I used to love to drive. It was a lot of fun for me. So I'm really looking forward to getting back to that. And just becoming an athlete again. one of my goals was definitely to hand cycle a marathon." SOUNDBITE 3 Brendan Marrocco (man), veteran who lost all limbs and has received a double arm transplant (English, 17 sec): "It's given me a lot of hope for the future. I feel like I've been given as second chance to start over after I got hurt. So I'm just excited, excited for the future, to see where I can go with it." - Brendan Marrocco rolls himself into press conference - Surgeons are seated at beginning of press conference - CU transplanted hands - Tilt up from transplanted arms to Marrocco's face - Marrocco brushes his hair from his face with new arm - MS Marrocco's family in front row of press conference - Marrocco smiles at end of press conference - Side cutaway of Marrocco while Lee speaks BALTIMORE, DECEMBER 18, 2012, SOURCE: JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL *NO RESALE for non-editorial purposes* - WS of operating theater where Marrocco received a double arm transplant from a team of surgeons from Johns Hopkins Hospital led by lead physician Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee - Surgeon working during operation - Lee during operation - CU physicians working - Nurses look on during operation ------------------------------- AFP TEXT STORY: Health-US-surgery-military US soldier says double arm transplant life-changing by Naomi Seck WASHINGTON, Jan 29, 2013 (AFP) - A US soldier who lost all his limbs in Iraq in 2009 said Tuesday he feels like himself again after he received a rare double arm transplant. Brendan Marrocco, a former infantryman who was the first soldier to survive quadruple limb loss in the Iraq war, underwent the complex 13-hour surgery six weeks ago. He is one of just seven people in the United States who have successfully received double arm transplants, and doctors say he has a long way to go before he can be certain his body will not reject the transplant and that he will gain function of the hands. "Currently I don't really have feeling or motion in my hands yet. But we'll get there," Marrocco said at a press conference, in his first public appearance since the surgery. With both arms and hands covered by casts and braces, and wearing a khaki t-shirt, Marrocco expressed determination and hope the new hands would change his life. "I hated not having arms," he said. "Not having arms takes so much away from you," he added, saying that losing both his legs was less frustrating in comparison. "You talk with your hands, you do so much with your hands," he explained, "When you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while." He said his new arms make him feel "almost like I went back four years," to before the roadside attack in Iraq where he was so gravely injured. One of his doctors, Jaimie Shores, the clinical director of Johns Hopkins Hospital hand transplant program, said Marrocco will spend the next two to three years doing "intense hand therapy," six hours a day, every day. "Brendan has a full-time job now," Shores said, adding the process "will take incredible amount of effort" as his nerves regenerate and teaches his body to use his new limbs. But he said Marrocco was chosen for the surgery in part because the medical team believed he was up to the challenge. "He's a young man with a tremendous amount of hope and he's stubborn. Stubborn in a good way," Shores said. "The sky's the limit with him," he added, of Marrocco's potential for gaining functional use of the new limbs. Shores said a previous patient who had received a double arm transplant above the elbow was now, three years later, eating with chopsticks and tying his shoes. Marrocco said he hopes to get back behind the wheel -- he has a black Dodge charger he's never driven waiting for him. And the former soccer player said he hopes to get back to playing sports, though he said now he aims to take on hand-cycling. "One of my goals is to hand cycle a marathon," Marrocco said. In addition to the complex surgery, which involved the connection of bones, blood vessels, muscles, tendons, nerves and skin on both arms, Marrocco is undergoing an innovative treatment to prevent rejection of the new limbs. That involved an infusion of the deceased donor's bone marrow cells, which has so far succeeded in both preventing rejection and reducing the need for anti-rejection drugs, which can cause complications such as infection and organ damage," Johns Hopkins said in a statement Monday. The first successful double arm transplant was in 2008 in Germany. This was the first time the procedure was done at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore.