Quadruple amputee vet gets double arm transplant

Retired Infantryman Brendan M. Marrocco wheels himself into a news conference followed by surgeons on Tuesday, Jan. 29. 2013, at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. Marrocco, 26, the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq war, received a double-arm transplant in Baltimore Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. "It's given me a lot of hope for the future," Marrocco said of his surgery. "I feel like it's given me a second chance."

brendan m. marrocco, double arm transplant — AP

Brendan M. Marrocco sits with his two transplanted arms resting in his lap during a news conference Tuesday, Jan. 29. 2013 at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. Marrocco lost all four limbs in a 2009 roadside bomb attack in Iraq. Doctors received two arms from a deceased donor for the complex transplant surgery. According to the hospital, Marrocco's transplants involved the connection of bones, blood vessels, muscles, tendons, nerves and skin on both arms. His doctors said it was the most extensive and complicated limb transplant procedure so far performed in the United States.

Brendan Marrocco describes this personal photo as being taken on Dec. 17, the last day he wore his prosthetic arm. Marrocco underwent a double arm transplant Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. The 13-hour operation is the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant done in the United States.

Surgeons operating on Quadruple amputee Sgt. Brendan Marrocco. The surgery was lead by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of plastic surgery at Johns Hopkins. Marrocco expects to spend three to four months at Hopkins, then return to a military hospital to continue physical therapy, his father said

This anatomical diagram from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine shows an arm transplant. Marrocco also received bone marrow from the same dead donor who supplied his new arms. That novel approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new limbs with minimal medication to prevent rejection. Doctors won't know how fully he will able able to use his new arms for more than a year.

A surgery team works on Sgt. Brendan Marrocco during a Dec. 18 procedure. Lee said nerves regrow at about an inch per month, so given the length of an arm, it will take several months to more than a year for most normal arm movements to occur with Marrocco.

Quadruple amputee Sgt. Brendan Marrocco at age 18 is seen in this image he uploaded to his Twitter account.

On Easter Sunday of 2009 in Iraq, his vehicle tripped a roadside bomb that took his limbs, severed his carotid artery and killed his best friend who was a gunner on the vehicle. Army Sgt. Brendan Marrocco of Staten Island, N.Y., poses for a picture at the 9/11 Memorial in New York on July 4, 2012 while he wears a prosthetic arm.

The 2009 roadside bomb took both his arms and left off completely while his right leg was still attached, Marcocco told the CBS Evening News in 2010. His carotid artery was also severed, but his life was spared because of the heat of the blast instantly cauterized some of the wounds it had caused. This 2009 personal photo photo shows Brendan Marrocco.

"I wasn't expected to live," Marrocco told the CBS Evening News in 2010 of his injuries. "I died three times and came back." No pulse. "Flat-out dead." Brendan Marrocco, 23, works with a trainer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in March 2010.

Tiger Woods greets Brendan Marrocco of Staten Island, New York, who was wounded in Iraq, near the 18th green during the final round of the AT&T National at the Congressional Country Club on July 5, 2009, in Bethesda, Md.

This 2010 personal photo shows Sgt. Brendan Marrocco with a scar on his neck.

Sgt. Brendan Marrocco is seen in this undated personal photo.

Sgt. Brendan Marrocco is seen following his December double arm transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Sgt. Brendan Marrocco was visited by two NASCAR drivers, Brad Keselowski (L) and Joey Logano (R), about a week after his surgery. Marrocco said he already can twist the wrist in his left arm, which had a lower amputation than the right, allowing doctors to begin that arm transplant at his elbow.

Quadruple amputee Sgt. Brendan Marrocco is seen in this personal image taken about one week after surgery.

This image uploaded by quadruple amputee Sgt. Brendan Marrocco shows what he calls a "sneak peak" of his newest scar. He says there is about 2 feet of scars on each of his arms.

This image shows Marrocco as he recovers from his Dec. 18 double arm transplant. Before the operation, he had been living with his older brother in a handicapped-accessible home on New York's Staten Island built with the help of several charities. The home was heavily damaged during Superstorm Sandy.