Modern medicine expands its abilities to improve human lives every year. In 2015, six surgeries set precedents as becoming the first transplants performed with success. From giving a young boy a new set of hands to giving a man an entirely new face, transplants are transforming and overcoming the limitations of the human body and giving patients the opportunity to experience body parts that were once lost. Functional Penis In December 2014, a 21-year-old man became the second patient to receive a penis transplant in the world. But it wasn’t until March 2015 that the unidentified patient at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, Africa proved that the surgery was successful with long-term functional results. The first patient to undergo the surgery was in China, but two weeks following the surgery, the man asked that the transplant be removed due to failed success with his wife. The operation itself isn’t difficult, according to the Cape Town surgery team. It’s the recovery that runs a higher risk of failure, which, so far, is considered a “massive breakthrough,” one of the surgeons said in a press release. The man, who lost his penis due to a botched circumcision procedure, has reportedly restored all of his urinary and reproductive functions. Skull and Scalp In May 2015, James Boysen, 55, received a new pancreas, kidney, scalp, and skull after years of battling a rare form of cancer called “leiomyosarcoma” and taking immunosuppressant medication. The radiation therapy doctors used to treat his cancer destroyed part of his head where the cancer affected the smooth muscle on his scalp. He wouldn’t have been able to survive the kidney and pancreas transplant with such a large, deteriorating wound on his head, which led reconstructive plastic surgeon Dr. Jesse Selber at MD Anderson Cancer Center to give him a new partial skull and scalp transplant. Last year, a Netherlands woman had a 3D-printed plastic skull transplant, but Boysen is the first to receive the first human transplant in the world. The surgery was planned nearly four years ago, but it took doctors a while before they found a suitable donor. The 15-hour procedure gave Boysen the ability to feel touch, pain, and sense temperature with astounding accuracy. Pediatric Double-Hand In July 2015, 8-year-old Zion Harvey from Philadelphia underwent an 11-hour procedure that would give him two new hands. After losing both of his hands, feet, and kidneys at the age of 2 due to a life-threatening bloodstream infection, Zion’s mother Pattie Ray came across an innovative new procedure at the University of Pennsylvania that could give him more than prosthetics — real hands. She learned Zion would be the perfect candidate because he had already been taking anti-rejection drugs for the kidney transplant he received from his mom. The drugs would help his body receive the transplanted hands without rejecting them. The fact that he’s a child made the surgery more complex because surgeons had to first attach the blood vessels, then bones, nerves, muscles, and skin while keeping in mind he would have to grow with the hands in proportion to his body frame as he aged. He has months of rehabilitation ahead of him but has so far been able to hold a book, scratch his face, and shake hands with others — simple actions many of us take for granted. Full Face In September 2001, volunteer firefighter Pat Hardison, 41, a father of three responded to a rescue mission call in his hometown of Sentaobia, Miss. After Hardison and his team entered into a house that was on fire, the ceiling collapsed onto him. His mask melted over his face and even after 63 days in the hospital recovering, he lost his entire face, scalp, ears, eyelids, nose, and lips. Roughly 70 surgeries over the course of 10 years weren’t able to restore him. In July 2015, Hardison’s new reconstructive surgeon Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez found a suitable donor that matched his skin color, hair color, and blood type. The next month Hardison underwent a 26-hour surgery, making him the first full facial transplant and giving him the confidence to reenter public society. He’s expected to regain full facial muscle control and speech within a year. Tiny Artificial Heart In March 2015, Nemah Kahala, a petite 44-year-old woman and mother of five, became the first small artificial heart transplant. After suffering from restrictive heart muscle disease, Kahala was placed on life support and approved for a one-time emergency use of the experimental transplant. Immediately she was given a flow of blood that helped her organs to recover and stabilize her condition enough to be placed on a transplant waiting list. One week later she was matched with a suitable donor and able to replace the artificial heart that kept her alive long enough to receive a human heart. So far, there have been eight transplants by SynCardia Total Artificial Hearts, but Kahala became the first to receive a smaller size that’s still being investigated for safety by the Food and Drug Administration. Deceased Uterus In November 2015, a team of surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic announced they hope to become the first team to perform a uterus transplant with a deceased donor into a woman without a uterus. The first uterus transplant was successfully performed a year ago with a live donor in Sweden. However, the Cleveland Clinic has decided to avoid putting healthy women at risk for being a donor. Only after having 10 of her own eggs fertilized by her partner’s sperm through in vitro fertilization and then frozen can a woman be put on a waiting list for a transplant. After one year living with a transplanted uterus, the embryos are to be implanted one at a time until pregnancy is achieved. Currently, the Clinic predicts there are as many as 50,000 women in America who could be potential candidates for the procedure. Source
