A double arm transplant was recently received just in time for Thanksgiving by Will Lautzenheiser, a 40-year-old quad amputee. Having received the double arm transplant from an anonymous donor, Lautzenheiser expressed gratitude at a news conference Tuesday at a Boston-area hospital.
During a news conference, Lautzenheiser showed off his two new arm transplants, with his arm in splints, reports CNN.
Lautzenheiser is expected to continue to gain function and sensation from after the double arm transplant over the next several years.
The double arm transplant occurred last month, where Lautzenheiser sat next to the doctors from Brigham and Women's Hospital, working tirelessly for almost nine hours in surgery with him.
"I hope to be able to live up to the memory of this man and make this worthwhile," Lautzenheiser said. "To have come here and to have received this gift is really astonishing to me, and it's obviously life-changing."
The former professor of film production and screenwriting added that the best thing about the double arm transplant operation was that he could finally hug his loved ones once again.
Also, a stand-up comic, Lautzenheiser reportedly lost his limbs in 2011 after battling a severe streptococcal infection, leading to sepsis that required quadruple amputation, the hospital said.
The rare double arm transplant, also called a bilateral arm transplant, was approved earlier this year, reports NBC News.
When the surgery was announced in June, Lautzenheiser told the Boston Herald that he was afraid to undergo the double arm transplant. However, he said he could not wait for the day he can hug his niece and partner and hold a camera once more, since he said he dreams of becoming a filmmaker one day.
"There were so many things that I didn't even realize I missed doing and now the capacity for doing those things is within reach, literally within reach," he told NBC News.
"There's a goal," the Massachusetts native said before the life changing double arm transplant surgery.
Apparently, Lautzenheiser has already started a second career before the double arm transplant. He worked as a club comic, and since he is always in a wheelchair, Lautzenheiser used humor, calling himself a "sit down comic."
In July, Lautzenheiser has become one of the first Americans on a national waiting list for arm transplants, as the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the Organ Transplant Procurement Network (OPTN) announced a change in regulation.
"These sorts of transplants are becoming more common, although they are still relatively rare," according to Dr. David Klassen, Chief Medical Officer for UNOS.
It is reportedly still too soon to learn more about how the system is working. However, Klassen can see the potential for growth.
"The whole community that is involved in this is sort of gradually expanding," he told NBC News.
The surgery lasted almost nine hours. The double arm transplant reportedly took a team of 35 clinicians, involving 13 surgeons for it to be completed at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"You could not wish for a better patient," said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, Director of Plastic Surgery Transplantation, describing Lautzenheiser on the double arm transplant procedure. "He's got the right attitude and he is incredibly diligent in everything he does."
"Of course I want to thank, to acknowledge and to honor the memory of the man whose arms I have so gratefully received," Lautzenheiser said about the anonymous donor of the double arm transplant. "This person who's anonymous to me will always be as close to me as my own skin now, and it's really an incredible gift."
Meanwhile, the donor's family addressed their gratitude about the double arm transplant via an anonymous statement.
"Our son gave the best hugs, we pray that you make a wonderful recovery and that your loved ones will be able to enjoy your warm embrace," the statement read.
According to investigators, even if his doctors told him it could take several years before he can move his hands in complex ways after the double arm transplant, Lautzenheiser said he was astonished at his progress.
"This is about it so far," Lautzenheiser said, laughing and slightly stretching his arm, which was in a splint and cast," but I had nothing, so even that is incredible."
According to the surgical team, they expect the function of Lautzenheiser's limbs to continue to improve over the course of the next several years as the nerves from the body regrow. Meanwhile, Lautzenheiser has to remain on immunosuppression drugs to his new limbs from being rejected by his body.
As of the moment, Lautzenheiser said he is focused on rehabilitating his arms. However, the possibility of considering leg transplants in the future is in order.
"I think it will be at least a year or maybe two years before I start thinking about another major surgery that would require two years of rehab. I don't know how much of my 40s I want to spend doing rehab," he joked with a room full of reporters.
According to the Associated Press, the story of Lautzenheiser's journey towards getting the double arm transplant can now be viewed via a ten minute documentary called "Stumped." The documentary discusses his rehabilitation and how he managed to pursue his goals as a filmmaker and performer despite being a quadruple amputee,
For Lautzenheiser, humor had been a powerful coping mechanism and. The Boston Globe reports that at a press conference back in June, a video of Lautzenheiser's stand up brought the crowd to chuckles.
"I keep you on your toes," Lautzenheiser said to a club audience in the video, "because I don't have any."
In June, Lautzenheiser said he hoped his double arm surgery would be able to pave the way for other amputees needing medical care. He also mentioned victims of the Boston Marathon bombing who were left without limbs.
"We've shown we really are Boston strong, and that's not just a catch phrase," he said. "The support we've given to people who have disabilities, however they've been obtained, is huge."
According to Dr. Simon Talbot, one of the surgeons on the team that performed the double arm surgery on Lautzenheiser, there have been about only 70 hand transplants around the world, including Lautzenheiser.
Since 2005, more than 85 hand/arm transplant arms and twenty partial or full face transplants have been conducted worldwide. In the U.S., Brigham and Women's Hospital is reportedly the only center to have performed both. They already have experience in completed three bilateral hands and arm transplants and seven face transplants.
A double arm transplant was also performed on a War veteran who lost his limbs overseas. In 2013, the limbs overseas had reportedly undergone a successful double arm transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
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