Lost limbs are a seeable symbol of what soldiers sacrifice in warfare , but there are other injuries that might be far more traumatic — like losing a phallus , for instance . Surgeons at Johns Hopkins University are preparing to undertake the first penis graft in the U.S. , giving a soldier bruise in Afghanistan a conferrer electric organ .
The procedure has been perform twice before internationally , but only come through once , last year in South Africa ; the man win mathematical function of the giver phallus within a few months , and soon after , doctors announcedthat his girlfriend was significant . The aesculapian school at Johns Hopkins has given Doctor there permission to perform up to 60 transplants as a trial to see if the observational surgery should become received .
The process requires obtain the organ from a gone presenter ( the kinfolk must give specific permission , since it ’s not quite like a kidney contribution ) and then attaching it to the receiver ’s body in a 12 - time of day surgery . The sawbones take to run up several nerve and artery together so that the patient role can eventually recuperate feeling and sexual function , although the unconscious process will likely take several month after the surgery . The patient role then must take medication for the sleep of his life to prevent his eubstance from rejecting the transplanted organ .
More than 1300 American military men support venereal injury during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2013 , and the Department of Veterans Affairs will pay for some of the medication costs associated with the surgery for soldier .
presently , the options for giving penis to mankind who lack them are less than stellar . Penis reconstruction involves using skin from another part of the body , and erections unremarkably require implants that are embarrassing andoccasionally pop out . scientist areworking oncreating lab - raise penises for transplants , but the technique has not yet been tested on human recipients , and the choice is unavailable to transgender man since it involve the patient role ’s own biologically male cells . This new penis transplant wo n’t be usable to transgender manpower initially , either , but it ’s potential that it could finally become an option for gender reassignment operation .
[ h / t : The New York Times ]
