Palscience

Doctors in the U.K preformed the first of its kind surgery where they used muscles and tissue from a patient’s unaffected elbow to create a new shoulder after it was amputated after a cancer at Leeds General Hospital in England.

Tom Lemm, 15, from Pontefract, lost his left arm after suffering from cancer “a tumor” at the top of the limb. Tom’s surgeons said that they removed the whole arm and shoulder, and then used the elbow joint and tissue from the arm to reconstruct a shoulder joint. Professor Kay told the BBC: “The most awful thing for an upper limb reconstructive surgeon to do is to remove an arm - it’s a dreadful thing to do.

“But by using the bits that would be discarded, you can pluck a little bit of comfort.”
He said Tom’s new shoulder will be able to support an artificial limb. “This will be a tremendous advantage.” BBC

Tom told the sun’s newspaper “I was very upset at losing my arm but then the prof told me what he planned to do.

“I hope the fact it has worked for me gives others hope.”