Marathoner Given Arm Transplants

A Frenchman who took up running marathons after being maimed four years ago by a model rocket received two arm transplants in the first operation of its kind, doctors said. The patient, whose identity was withheld, was “in very satisfactory condition” after the 17-hour surgery to attach the new limbs below the elbows. Eighteen top surgeons from around the world operated on the 33-year-old man Thursday after a donor was found. The team was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, head of transplant surgery at the Edouard-Herriot hospital in Lyon, in southeastern France.