A 35-person medical team, including 13 surgeons, performed a rare dual arm transplant on a 40-year-old quadruple amputee who describes the experience of getting the new limbs as "surreal."
"I want to thank the doctors for their great service," an emotional Will Lautzenheiser said at a news conference at the hospital on Tuesday. "I want to thank everyone."
The arms were attached last month from an anonymous donor in a nine-hour operation at Brigham & Women's Hospital, reported Reuters.
He said having the new limbs was "incredible" and "surreal."
Lautzenheiser, who lost his arms and legs to a streptococcal infection in 2011, said he has limited function in the new arms, which are encumbered by wrappings to help with healing.
Lautzenheiser, a former professor of film production and screenwriting at Boston University and Montana State University, has a long stretch of therapy ahead but hopes to return to his career.
The family of the anonymous donor told Lautzenheiser in a statement issued Tuesday that it hoped he would make a "wonderful recovery, and that your loved ones will be able to enjoy your warm embrace."
While rare, there have been other double-arm transplants in the United States recent years. In 2012, a U.S. soldier who lost all four limbs in a roadside explosion in Iraq had double-arm transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.