Doctors Grow New Ear on Arm of Army Private

Doctors grew a new ear for Army Private Shamika Burrage under the skin of her arm after she lost her ear in a car accident. 

U.S. Army doctors performed the procedure on the 21-year-old after using her own cartilage to grow the ear, which was then attached to Burrage’s head at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso.

A statement Monday said Burrage recovered her hearing after the operation and is expected to have feeling in the ear after she completes rehab.

“The whole goal is by the time she’s done with all this, it looks good, it’s sensate, and in five years if somebody doesn’t know her they won’t notice,” said Lt. Col. Owen Johnson III, chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the medical center. 

“She was 19 and healthy and had her whole life ahead of her,” Johnson continued. “Why should she have to deal with having an artificial ear for the rest of her life?”

“I was just scared at first but wanted to see what he could do,” Burrage said, the Army reported.

The procedure has been done before at Johns Hopkins in 2012, but this was a first for the U.S. military.

Burrage says she’s optimistic about her future. 

“It’s been a long process for everything, but I’m back,” she said.

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