It’s Magic! Injured Veteran Feels “Whole Again” After Penis and Scrotum Transplant Performed by US Doctors
Doctors in the US have performed the world’s first penis and scrotum transplant to treat a war wound. Keep on reading Nexter.org to know more.
Historical transplant
The doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore performed the surgery to repair the genitals of a serviceman severely injured by an explosion in Afghanistan.
The patient underwent 14 hours of surgery in late March. The man, whose name was not given, is recovering well and expected to regain both urinary and sexual function, said Richard Redett, who led the transplant team.
It marks the third successful penis transplant and the first complex penis transplant, which is to say it involved the scrotum and surrounding tissue as well as the penis.
For ethical reasons, surgeons removed the testicles prior to the transplantation to prevent the possibility that the recipient could father children genetically belonging to the donor.
The team of doctors expect the patient will recover the ability to urinate and have spontaneous erections and orgasms. In fact, they hope urination to be possible within a few months!
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
“I feel whole again”
The vet, who wished to stay anonymous, told the Times: “I feel whole again.” The IED took both of his legs above the knee and destroyed his genitals. But it was the genital injury that hit him hardest, he said. “That injury, I felt like it banished me from a relationship. Like, that’s it, you’re done, you’re by yourself for the rest of your life. I struggled with even viewing myself as a man for a long time.”
He now has plans to go to medical school, settle down, and meet someone. “Just that normal stuff,” he said.
The donor was not identified, nor was his cause of death, but his family released a statement praising the sergeant’s service to his country and noting the donor family includes a number of military veterans.
“We are so thankful to say that our loved one would be proud and honored to know he provided such a special gift to you,” said the statement, read by Alexandra Glazier, president and CEO of New England Donor Services, which arranged for the donation.
“We hope you can return to better health very soon and we continue to wish you a speedy recovery.”
It’s unclear how many veterans are in need of such a transplant. From 2001 to 2013, 1,367 men, nearly all under the age of 35, returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan with genital injuries, according to the Department of Defense Trauma registry. Of those, 31 percent involved injuries to the penis and 20 percent of those penile injuries were categorized as severe, according to the Times.
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