A U.S. war veteran who had his genitals blown off in an Afghanistan bomb blast has a new lease on life after a team of surgeons at Johns Hopkins Medicine performed the world’s first total penis and scrotum transplant, PEOPLE confirms.
The patient, who asked to remain anonymous, has recovered from the 14-hour surgery and is expected to leave the hospital this week. A team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons transplanted the penis and scrotum — without the testicles — as well as part of the abdominal wall from a deceased donor to the injured veteran on March 26, officials said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
“It’s a real mind-boggling injury to suffer; it is not an easy one to accept,” the patient said in a statement. “When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal … [with] a level of confidence as well. Confidence … like finally I’m okay now.”
W. P. Andrew Lee, Chairman of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University, said that the team performed multiple “surgical rehearsals” before the transplant.
“We are optimistic that he will regain near-normal urinary and sexual functions following full recovery,” Lee said in the statement, calling the man’s condition an “unspoken injury of war.”
The surgery involved transplanting skin, muscles and tendons, nerves, blood vessels and bones, officials said in an official announcement. However, surgeons did not transplant the donor’s testicles due to ethical issues including whether his genetic material would be transferred to the patient’s children, according to The Baltimore Sun.
“We just felt there were too many unanswered ethical questions with that kind of transplant,” Dr. Damon Cooney, with Johns Hopkins Medicine, said, according to the publication.
Lacking the donor’s testicles, the patient will not be able to reproduce. The procedure was estimated to have cost up to $400,000 — the hospital covered a majority of the expense, according to the Washington Post.
Through the hospital, the donor’s family released a statement, which did not include the man’s name or cause of death.
“We are all very proud that our loved one was able to help a young man that served this country. We are so thankful to say that our loved one would be proud and honored to know he provided such a special gift to you,” the family said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “We hope you can return to better health very soon and we continue to wish you a speedy recovery.”
