(photo courtesy: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Originally appeared here in The Times of Israel
An Israeli child runs to pick up a seemingly abandoned toy from the street. In a tragic flash, he discovers it is a bomb and with the loss of both his hands, child’s play is over.
Until now that boy would have never again been able to grasp his mother’s hand in his. But with a new groundbreaking procedure performed by a team led by Dr. L. Scott Levin in Philadelphia this July, there is renewed hope.
And the hope springs forth from Zion.
Today a bubbly, active and precocious eight year old, at age two Zion Harvey was struck by a sepsis infection that led to the amputation of his hands and feet. Barely hanging on two years later, he also underwent a kidney transplant through a donation from his mother, Pattie Ray.
This July, he underwent a further organ transplant — a pair of hands — made possible by an unknown boy of similar size and pigmentation whose life was severed too early. This groundbreaking bilateral pediatric hand transplant opens up a world of possibilities to Zion, as well as to a world of children who, through birth defects, infection, or injury, have lost their hands and who, until now, had no recourse to regain them. Read More