The United States is about to perform its first penis transplant on a young soldier injured during a bomb blast in Afghanistan.
The New York Times reports that the organ will come from a deceased donor.
Surgeons, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, say they expect the penis to start working in a matter of months, developing urinary function, sensation and, eventually, the ability to have sex.
The Times says: “From 2001 to 2013, 1,367 men in military service suffered wounds to the genitals in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nearly all were under 35 and were hurt by homemade bombs. Some lost all or part of their penises or testicles.”
Only two other penis transplants have been reported in medical journals: a failed one in China in 2006 and a successful one in South Africa last year. The surgery is considered experimental.
Doctors have cautioned that patients should be realistic and not “think they can regain it all” but there is “some hope to father children (and) that is a realistic goal.”
