Man receives new hands amputated rare transplant

A man of 65 years of age with all four limbs amputated received two new hands in a rare double transplantation, said Friday the Brigham Hospital in Boston, USA.


A team of more than 40 doctors, nurses and other staff annexed the hands of Richard Mangino during a procedure that lasted 12 hours last week.


Mangino said he is to adapt gradually to the new hands and now will not have to "work miracles" every day to do simple things like coffee and get dressed.


Speaking at news conference, sitting in a wheelchair with his arms and hands resting on a pile of cushions, Mangino said he prayed to have the ability to touch the face of your grandchildren, get in their hair and
teach them to play ball.


Mangino, the city of Revere, Mass., lost his arms below the elbows and legs below the knees after contracting septicemia, a bloodstream infection in 2002.


The complicated surgery included transplantation of skin, tendons, muscles, ligaments, bones and blood vessels of both forearms and hands, the hospital said.


Doctors said Mangino moved the fingers independently just a few days after surgery and found the results a "resounding success".


His recovery will take many months and the doctors expect him to recover the sense of touch in six to nine months. He already does physical therapy to help you learn to grasp and pick things up.


The double hand transplant is the second conducted by the institution, which is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.


In May, a team conducted a full face transplant and the first double hand transplant on Charla Nash, a Connecticut woman who was attacked by a chimpanzee in 2009.


The hospital said the transplant hands on Charla was successful, but the hands did not respond after complications of pneumonia and have been removed.


There are some other programs around the country who perform hand transplants.


The first such transplant was done in France in 1998 and the first in the United States was completed a year later.


The doctors said that about a dozen hand transplants was made in the U.S. and believe that only four of those were doubles.