Veteran who survived blast receives penis transplant
WASHINGTON — A veteran who lost his genitals from a blast in Afghanistan has received the world’s most extensive penis transplant, and doctors said Monday he is recovering well and expected to leave the hospital this week.
Saying they wanted to address “an unspoken injury of war,” Johns Hopkins University surgeons rebuilt the man’s entire pelvic region — transplanting a penis, scrotum and part of the abdominal wall from a deceased donor — in a highly experimental 14-hour operation last month.
Such transplants “can help those warriors with missing genitalia just as hand and arm transplant transformed the lives of amputees,” said Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, Hopkins’ chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery.