New Ear Grown on Soldier's Forearm in First-of-its-kind Army Surgery
U.S. Army surgeons have grown a new ear on soldier's forearm to replace one that was lost in a car accident.
Doctors at William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC) in El Paso, Texas, took cartilage from the soldier's ribs to craft a new ear. This was then inserted under the skin of the forearm so that it could grow.
The groundbreaking technique—the first procedure of its kind in the Army—allows the ear to form new arteries, veins and even nerves, meaning the private should eventually regain sensation in the ear.
"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," Lt. Col. Owen Johnson III, chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at WBAMC, said in a statement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @09:28PM
Why didn't you grow the ear on the side of her head where it belongs. Is it because then you wouldn't get to bill the taxpayers for another operation?