Posted on 10/06/2016 6:21:32 AM PDT by pabianice
... It's been six years since he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and became a quadruple amputee. Almost two years since he got on the waiting list for a double arm transplant. Less than 24 hours since the urgent summons from the hospital here.
Now, Peck, 31, is under a white blanket with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth, unnerved that a dying man's limbs are headed for the operating room, and not really sure that he will make it through the surgery.
He's breathing heavily. The nurse, Jocelyn Lim, appears, leans in close and tells him to calm down, everything will be okay. After that, he remembers little: "I'm gone. . . . knocked out."
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On Wednesday morning, Peck, who lives outside Fredericksburg, Virginia, made his first public appearance with his new arms at a media briefing at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
He is thought to be the second quadruple amputee from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to get a double arm transplant.
The 13-hour surgery was performed in August by a team headed by Simon Talbot, the hospital's director of upper extremity transplantation.
It was a complex procedure that required good timing, surgeons at two medical facilities, the help of the New England Organ Bank, and a large plastic cooler to transport the donor's limbs.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Keep on keepin’ on!
God gives us the power to perform miracles ... in His name.
a dying man’s limbs are headed for the operating room
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The doner wasn’t yet dead when they cut of his arms ???
I know in Europe they keep coma patients around and use them for parts.
Maybe the practice is making it’s way to America.
Perhaps it was imminent. Maybe someone was in an accident. His story of endurance and persistence is what strikes me. God bless him!
Donors are almost never dead when parts are harvested. Corneas can last some period after death, but organs, limbs and whatnot have a very very short shelf life after the heart stops. In general, they sedate the brain dead, cut out what ever it is and clamp off the arteries and whatnot until everything is harvested.
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