The child lost both his hands, his legs below the knees and damaged his kidneys due to a life-threatening infection when the recipient was only 2 year of age. The boy's mother Pattie Ray donated a healthy kidney in an effort to improve the quality of life for her young son.
Ironically, it was this kidney transplant at age 4 and the immune supressing drugs that he was already tolerating well that made him at ideal candidate at age 8 to be the first kid in the world to get new hands. The drugs gave him a better chance at not rejecting transplanted hands, according to NBC News. After 18 months of preparation and evaluation, Zion was fortunately listed as a recipient of donor hands.
At the Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia, the complex 10-hour procedure comprised two teams of 40 competent doctors, nurses and surgeons - one focusing on the donor's hands, the other on Harvey's. Dr. Scott Levin, Orthopedic Surgery chairman at the University of Pennsylvania together with Dr. Benjamin Chang and the rest were finally ready.
According to CBS Baltimore, the bones were connected, then the arteries and veins. And when blood began to flow, the muscles were repaired one by one. Last but not least, the nerves were rejoined. Everyone held their breath. Every attachment worked and the grueling surgery was a success.
The task doesn't end there, however. Zion, accompanied by his mother Pattie Ray, had to come in 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 10 months at the Kennedy Krieger Institute for painstaking occupational therapies.
In addition, there were a few scary setbacks shortly after his surgery and for a while there, it seemed that his body was rejecting his new hands. Despite this, Zion fought and persevered through.
Weeks after the momentous procedure, the boy was already playing with this favorite action figures and even whisking away and baking cookies. He said he felt that now, with his new pair of appendages, his life was finally complete.
The good news doesn't stop there. A year after his surgery at Philadelphia, Zion even got to throw first pitch at an Orioles baseball game against the Texas Rangers.
There will always be work to be done, therapies to tackle and questions to be pondered on. Zion Harvey's life has never been easy and never will be but both his and his mom's resilience has rose above their tribulation and they continue to soar and be an inspiration for all the world to see.
