Harvard surgeons perform hand transplant
Fourteen Harvard surgeons, supported by 36 anesthesiologists, radiologists, nurses, and other medical personnel at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), last week worked for 12 hours to give a new pair of hands to a 65-year-old Revere man who lost both arms below the elbows and both legs below the knees as a result of a septic infection in 2002. “This latest milestone reflects the commit and dedication” of BWH “to continuing to expand the boundaries of what is possible in transplantation,” Elof Eriksson, Harvard Medical School’s Joseph E. Murray Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at BWH, said at a press conference today announcing the Brigham team’s second successful bilateral hand transplant. In prepared remarks, transplant recipient Richard Mangino said, “In thinking about what I wanted to say today, two words kept coming to my mind: gratitude and miracles. “When I survived the devastating...