German Doctors Perform First Double-Arm Transplant
Posted August 1, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A team of German surgeons spent 15 grueling hours during what proved to be a challenging, and unprecedented operation at the Munich University Clinic last week.
When they were done, a German farmer who lost both arms in an accident had been successfully fitted with two new appendages. The 54-year-old patient made the medical history books as the first complete double-arm transplant recipient.
He is said to be recovering well.
The man’s arms were severed just below the shoulder six years ago.
It took 40 doctors, nurses, and assistants to pull off the tricky procedure. The arms of a man who had recently died were used.
Neither the patient nor the donor were identified.
