Boy with double-hand transplant’s next goal: Play football

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — It’s been just over a year since 9-year-old Zion Harvey received a double-hand transplant, and he said Tuesday what he really wants to do is play football.

“I feel happy about my new hands, and I don’t feel different. I like now that I can throw a football further than when I didn’t have hands,” he said during a briefing at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he underwent the 10-hour surgery in July 2015. His mother, doctor and physical therapists joined him.

The nation’s youngest hand transplant patient has been going through extensive rehab to learn how to use his new hands. He lost them and his feet to amputation seven years ago after suffering a serious infection, and has leg prosthetics that allow him to walk.

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