First-of-its-kind surgery uses cadaver tissue to create new ear for Long Island boy

NEW YORK -- A first-of-its-kind surgery on Long Island has changed a little boy's life forever

Five-year-old Luca Vacchio, from Levittown, was born without a left ear, so Dr. Nicholas Bastidas, a plastic surgeon at Cohen Children's Medical Center, made him a new one using cadaver tissue.

Typically, surgeons take live human tissue from the patient's own rib cage or use a synthetic implant.

Bastidas says shaping a new ear from cadaver tissue means far less pain and a quicker recovery.

Above all, Luca's new ear feels like his own.

"He can feel it. If he was a girl, or boy, he could pierce it. You can treat it like normal tissue, which is great. Less risk of infection, and it will not break. If he plays tackle football with his buddies later on, unlike an implant, this will not break," Bastidas said.

Luca still can't hear out of his new ear, but Bastidas says there is hope other procedures could fix that, too.