A team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently performed a bilateral arm transplant, for Will Lautzenheiser, who became a quadruple amputee in 2011 following a life-threatening streptococcal infection.
The team of 35 clinicians, including 13 surgeons, worked for 8 hours and 50 minutes to complete the transplant. It was the hospital’s third bilateral hand transplant since the inception of the hand transplant program in 2010.
Lautzenheiser underwent a rigorous preoperative evaluation before the surgery was approved by the hospital’s Institutional Review Board.
In an anonymous statement released by the hospital, the family of the donor stated, “Our son gave the best hugs, we pray that you will make a wonderful recovery and that your loved ones will be able to enjoy your warm embrace.”
