This Boy is the First Child With a Double Hand Transplant and He’s Amazing Doctors

This Boy is the First Child With a Double Hand Transplant and He’s Amazing Doctors

Making medical history, Zion Harvey shows us that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Most of us will never experience what it’s like to have a new set of hands. For Zion Harvey, it’s business as usual though, and his story is anything but ordinary.

At the tender age of 2 years, Zion lost his hands and leg below the knee as the result of a life-threatening staphylococcal sepsis infection.

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He gets around on prosthetic legs, but last July, he became the first child in history to undergo a double hand transplant. Since then, he’s been wowing doctors with his progress.

Zion can now cut with scissors, grab a slice of pizza and do minute things like playing with an action figure. He’s even thrown the first pitch at a major league baseball game.

video credit: www.youtube.com

It’s all possible due to the successful acceptance of his donate hands by his body. It hasn’t been an easy road. The new hands were rejected numerous times by his body before finally taking hold.

Zion’s body had to form new nerve endings, while his brain learned to communicate with his new limbs, and the young 9-year old boy had to undergo extensive rehabilitation therapy, to get his new hands working.

His mom, Patty Ray, is very proud of his hard work, as are doctors who find his positive attitude and diligence amazing.

Zion’s next goal? Maybe doing a cartwheel, or crossing the monkey bars, he says.

As the wise youngster told NBCnews.com, “I’m very excited. Because now I can do more than I imagined. Like throw a football. Play baseball. Or, I don’t know, do a handstand…When I got my hands, it’s like, here’s the piece of my life that was missing. Now it’s here. Now my life is complete.”

Way to go, Zion!

Photo Credits: Nikki Zalewski/Bigstock.com

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