Iraq War Vet Brendan Marrocco Has Succesful Double-Arm Transplant

Brendan Marrocco addressed the public on Tuesday, a little over a month after he underwent a successful bilateral arm transplant. Marrocco, 26, lost all four of his limbs in a bomb blast while serving in Iraq in 2009. The 13-hour surgery was performed by plastic surgeon W.P. Andrew Lee and the Johns Hopkins Hospital medical team on Dec. 18.

Marrocco’s operation is one of only seven successful double arm transplants in the United States, according to USA Today. America's first double-arm transplant was performed at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital last September, ABC News reports.

Marrocco’s procedure required the doctors to connect bone, muscles, tendons, skin and blood vessels from Marrocco to the arms, which came from a dead donor. Marrocco also used a new treatment to help prevent his body from rejecting the transplant that included receiving bone marrow from the donor.

Marrocco must perform considerable physical therapy over the next two years as doctors expect the nerve-endings in his arms to regenerate at one inch per month.

"My arms have given me a lot of hope,” Marrocco said in a statement through Johns Hopkins Hospital. “They feel great. Don't have any pain anymore. Currently I don't have any feeling yet, but we'll get there. I can move my wrist a little bit."

—Hal Sundt

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