World's first penis transplant successful after receiving organ from dead donor
The man who
had the world’s first penis transplant is to become a dad.
The
girlfriend of the 21-year-old South African revealed she is expecting their
first child.
Doctors said
they were delighted and it showed the “complete success” of the operation.
The
recipient - who has not been named - received the new organ last year after a
botched circumcision operation.
The couple’s
baby is due in October.
Doctor Andre
van der Merwe performed the ground breaking operation.
He has given
a lecture on the success of the operation.
He said:
“Initially we had no financial backing, no donors and many critics, but I am
now happy to hear the recipient’s girlfriend is now four months pregnant.”
Van der
Merwe says he is looking forward to performing more penile transplants.
The
ground-breaking operation took a team of surgeons nine hours and has allowed
the patient to be sexually active.
The unnamed
recipient received the penis from a dead donor on December 11 last year.
Dr van der
Merwe said skin from the inside of the patient’s leg and tattooing were used to
match the colour of the transplanted penis to the recipient’s skin colour.
Dr van der
Merwe said he had been inundated with requests for penile transplants from
around the world - and even offers from potential donors.
In an
interview earlier this year, he said: “I’ve had someone email from America who
wants his penis removed.
“He wants to
be genderless and donate his penis to somebody.”
The
operation was part of a pilot study to develop a penis transplant procedure
that could be performed in South African hospitals.
Nine more
patients are awaiting the same surgery after losing their penises in
traditional initiation ceremonies that went wrong.
SOURCE: Standard Digital
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