One year ago, Zion Harvey made news by becoming the first child to get a double hand transplant. At the age of 2, he lost his hands and feet due to an infection that also resulted in organ failure and a kidney transplant. Doctors transplanted donor hands and forearms to him at Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Harvey has proven to be one tough kid who is now enjoying life and batting it out of the park.
Since his transplant, Zion has been able to enjoy things kids his age enjoy, such as hitting a baseball, throwing a football and even writing in his journal. His 9th birthday was special because he was able to serve his friends and family birthday cake.
“I feel happy about my new hands and I don’t feel different,” Harvey said, “Now I can throw a football further than when I didn’t have hands. My next goal is to convince my mom to let me play football.”
Luckily for us, some of these moments were caught on Twitter:
Happening now 1 year later @PennMedicine & @ChildrensPhila docs give update one worlds 1st pediatric hand transplant pic.twitter.com/4vYKs7cNIs
— Penn Medicine News (@PennMedNews) August 23, 2016
He’s here! pic.twitter.com/GXlMcGdiAz
— Jericka Duncan (@Jerickaduncan) August 23, 2016
What’s Zion’s next big goal? You’re gonna love his answer. @PennMedicine @ChildrensPhila @shrinershosp @Donors1 pic.twitter.com/yqmiwlXCAB
— Penn Medicine News (@PennMedNews) August 23, 2016
Hopefully, Mom allows this awesome kid to play football — We can see him scoring touchdowns on the field like he’s been scoring them in life.
