| 1 | For the first time in Zion Harvey's life, he'll be able to throw a football with two hands. |
| 2 | Earlier this month the 8-year-old Baltimore boy underwent a medical milestone, becoming the first child in the world to undergo a double-hand transplant. |
| 3 | That historical, 10-hour surgery followed surgeons at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia attaching a donor's hands and forearms to his limbs through tiny blood vessels, bones, nerve muscles and skin. |
| 4 | "I just felt like he was being reborn," his mother, Pattie Ray, told NBC News of the incredible result. |
| 5 | The highly-complex surgery, undertaken by a 40-member transplant team, followed Zion growing up for most of his life not only without hands but legs as well. |
| 6 | When he was just 2-years old, he underwent a quadruple amputation after suffering a life-threatening infection in his bloodstream that caused multi-organ failure. |
| 7 | He spent years on dialysis until - at age 4 - he was given a kidney from his mother. |
| 8 | One thing he said he still longed to do, however: throw a football. |
| 9 | During an appointment for possible prosthetics, Zion's mom said they were surprised when doctors suggested he get hands instead. |
| 10 | In 2011 Penn Medicine, which provided some of Zion's surgeons, had successfully performed a bilateral hand transplant on an adult. |
| 11 | Zion was also found eligible for the transplant thanks to him already taking drugs for his past kidney transplant, which would prevent his body from rejecting a new organ. |
| 12 | "It was Zion's decision," Ray told the Baltimore Sun. |
| 13 | "If he wanted them we were going to get them. If we didn't we weren't." |
| 14 | Zion, when asked, was in. |
| 15 | While waiting for a donor match, Zion's doctors practiced the exact procedure on cadavers. |
| 16 | When the surgery finally took place they then connected his forearm's bones to the donor's with steel plates and screws. |
| 17 | The arteries and veins were then joined before blood was permitted to flow. |
| 18 | Each muscle and tendon was then rejoined followed by the nerves. |
| 19 | Dr. L. Scott Levin, director of the Hand Transplantation Program at the children's hospital, recalled watching Zion's new hand turn pink from the successful blood flow. |
| 20 | "That hand was now alive," he told NBC. |
| 21 | "That became, instantly, part of Zion's circulation, no different than my hand or your hand." |
| 22 | Zion is now recovering from the surgery, something that is expected to take several months. |
| 23 | His recovery includes visits with occupational therapist multiple times per day to practice moving his new hands, something he can't yet do without their help. |
| 24 | Some of the first things he said he looks forward to doing are throwing a football, climbing on the monkey bars and playing with his little sister. |
| 25 | "My favorite thing (will be to) wait for her to run into my hands as I pick her up and spin her around," he told NBC News. |