A Massachusetts man who received a double hand transplant in 2011 has amazed his family be re-learning how to play the piano.
Richard Mangino, a quadruple amputee, was the world's first successful double hand transplant patient, Yahoo News reported.
The patient was a married father-of-three who worked at the Logan International Airport in Boston. In 2002, at the age of 55, he developed kidney stones. His condition led to sepsis, which is a dangerous infection in the blood, the Daily Mail reported. The infection forced the man, who was also a musician, to make the hard decision to have all four limb amputated.
Mangino first learned to hold his baby grandsons and eventually even paint and drive with his prosthetics. He called Brigham and Women's Hospital after reading they had performed numerous face transplants. The doctors told him that at 65 he was too old for a hand transplant, but after carefully reviewing his case the hospital decided to make an exception.
The procedure lasted 12 hours and included 14 surgeons, the Daily Mail reported. The transplant was successful and Mangino has now gained enough sensation in his fingers to paint and play piano, Yahoo reported.
"The new normal is just the way that I am," Mangino, from Revere, Ma., told WCVB-TV. "I don't notice what I have or what I don't have. I'm just doing all these things now."
Mangino said regaining the ability to create art and music has worked wonders on his psychological state.
"I'm sure that I do a lot more than a lot of people," Mangino said, "because I had music and I have some art and I have some things that I already do that help me through life psychologically. It's just a huge benefit, you know? Psychologically, I'm as good as everybody else with hands."
In the future Mangino would like to learn how to play guitar.
