Docs Perform First Quadruple Limb Transplant

Turkish surgeons restore arms and legs to 27-year-old
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2012 1:58 PM CST
Docs Perform First Quadruple Limb Transplant
Surgeons in Turkey say they have performed the world's first quadruple limb transplant on a man who had both arms and legs amputated as a teenager.   (Shutterstock)

Doctors in Turkey say they have performed the world's first quadruple limb transplant on a man who lost both arms and legs at age 13, Sky News reports. The 20-hour operation at a hospital in Ankara required more than 50 doctors working on the patient, 27-year-old Sevket Cavdar. "We have good results but maybe we will lose all of the limbs," one surgeon says. "Maybe (we'll) lose only one or two, we have to wait, but I think for now we have good results."

Doctors are asking for blood donations to help with possible complications, the Daily Mail reports. The patient's brother-in-law, Cengiz Cavdar, is among those waiting for results: "(He) has only been seeing himself walking in his dreams," he says. "We hope that he will be able to walk one day in real life. ... He always wanted to become a driver one day." The surgery comes two months after a failed triple limb transplant at a Turkish hospital in the province of Antalya. (More transplant stories.)

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