First man to undergo penis transplant in US speaks of hopes for 'normal life'

Thomas Manning received the first US donor penis
Sam Riley/Mass General Hospital via AP

The first US patient to receive a dead donor’s penis has told how he hopes to return to a normal life after the operation.

Thomas Manning, 64, received the transplant having been left with a one-inch stump when most of his penis was removed due to a cancerous tumour.

Now doctors hope he will be able to resume urinary and sexual functions with months after a dead man's penis was substituted for his.

Mr Manning went public with the operation to support other men with genital cancer or injuries.

Before the operation, he told the New York Times: “I couldn’t have a relationship with anybody.

“You can’t tell a woman, ‘I had a penis amputation’.”

The surgery team at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston spent three years preparing for the £52,164 operation, after being approached by Mr Manning.

To do this they performed trial surgery on six dead donors.

Mr Manning was also given psychological test to make sure he was able to deal with the transplant.

The bank courier was then put on a waiting list and within two weeks a donor was found with the right blood group and skin tone was found.

Leading the surgical team, Curtis Cetrulo revealed he was optimistic about the results of the operation.

Mr Manning, from Halifax, Massachusetts, revealed he had not had a look at his new manhood, but now wanted to go ‘back to being who he was’.

Speaking of his hopes for a romantic life in the future, he added: "If I’m lucky, I get 75 percent of what I used to be.

“Before the surgery I was 10 percent. But they made no promises. That was part of the deal.”

He is the first man to receive a penis transplant in the US, but other operations have been performed in China and South Africa, with varying success.

Mr Cetrulo said another patient was on the hospital’s waiting list for a donor penis after losing his to burns in a car accident.

Other hospitals also have patients lined up for the ground breaking surgery.

The surgery is part of research into reconstructing pelvic regions for soldiers and other military personnel injured in war.

The same procedures have also been designed to help patients with similar damage to the area and genital cancer sufferers.

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