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Former soldier gets double-arm transplant

Posted at 5:07 PM, Jan 29, 2013
and last updated 2013-01-29 17:07:20-05

A former soldier is now the first service member to have a double-arm transplant.

Brendan Marrocco lost all four limbs in 2009 to a makeshift roadside bomb in Iraq.

Last month, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore joined his muscle, bone, skin and nerves with the arms of a deceased donor during a marathon surgery.

The 26-year-old showed off his new arms Tuesday.

He says he can't wait to get back to doing regular things.

“Driving, absolutely. Driving. I used to love to drive and it was a lot of fun for me so I'm really looking forward to getting back to that and just becoming an athlete again. I'd love to - one of my goals is definitely to hand cycle a marathon, so, yeah, I would love to get back to that," says Marrocco.

Marrocco is one of only seven people in the U-S who have undergone successful double arm transplants.