--- title: Hand Transplant: Boy Leaves Hospital With New Hands description: The first child to ever get a double hand transplant went home from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-27T00:04:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:03.352Z article:section: Health og:title: Boy Who Had First Double Hand Transplant Leaves Hospital og:description: Zion Harvey, 8, had the world's first bilateral hand transplant og:url: https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31164f1ac7b9035f/69885c953c16397a65459001/zion-hand-transplant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Zion with his new hands after the world's first bilateral hand transplant on a child at The Children's Hospital of Philidelphia. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Boy Who Had First Double Hand Transplant Leaves Hospital twitter:description: Zion Harvey, 8, had the world's first bilateral hand transplant twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31164f1ac7b9035f/69885c953c16397a65459001/zion-hand-transplant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Boy Who Had First Double Hand Transplant Leaves Hospital With New Hands ## Video: Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child [Watch (HLS stream): Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WjIh5WvU.m3u8) (13:11)  _Published 2015-07-28. Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child_ by [Stacey Naggiar / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Stacey Naggiar / NBC News Aug 27, 2015 12:04 AM UTC  Zion with his new hands after the world's first bilateral hand transplant on a child at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Zion with his new hands after the world's first bilateral hand transplant on a child at The Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaThe Children's Hospital of Philadelphia by [Stacey Naggiar / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Stacey Naggiar / NBC News Aug 27, 2015 12:04 AM UTC The first child to ever get a [double hand transplant](http://time.com/3973309/hand-transplant-video/) went home from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Wednesday, his hands still bandaged but working well enough to let him play with action figures. Zion Harvey, 8, lost his arms and legs to a life-threatening infection when he was just 2\. He later needed a kidney transplant and was put on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his life. But this tragic medical history made Zion the ideal candidate to be the first kid in the world to get new hands. “The challenges facing Zion are new, but his determination should overcome them. He’s already done so many amazing things,” Zion’s mom Pattie Ray said in a statement. [**Read more from our partners at NBC News**](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/boy-leaves-hospital-new-hands-n416516?cid=par-time-article%5F20150826) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/"},"headline":"Boy Who Had First Double Hand Transplant Leaves Hospital With New Hands","datePublished":"2015-08-27T00:04:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:03.352Z","description":"\"The challenges facing Zion are new, but his determination should overcome them\"","url":"https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/","keywords":["medicine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31164f1ac7b9035f/69885c953c16397a65459001/zion-hand-transplant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stacey Naggiar / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31164f1ac7b9035f/69885c953c16397a65459001/zion-hand-transplant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Zion with his new hands after the world's first bilateral hand transplant on a child at The Children's Hospital of Philidelphia.","caption":"Zion with his new hands after the world's first bilateral hand transplant on a child at The Children's Hospital of Philidelphia.","creditText":"The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/","name":"Boy Who Had First Double Hand Transplant Leaves Hospital With New Hands"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child","description":"Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WjIh5WvU/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-28T15:04:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WjIh5WvU.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/","duration":"PT13M11S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4012601/double-hand-transplant-leaves-hospital/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```