Former Schofield soldier shows off his 2 new arms

After getting transplanted arms last month, what former Schofield Barracks soldier Brendan Marrocco really wants to do is wrap his new hands around the steering wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and go for a drive.

That may come in time, doctors say.

With weeks of round-the-clock medical care, the 26-year-old New Yorker and one-time soldier with the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds" was able to roll his own wheelchair into a news conference Tuesday in Baltimore using his new arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.

Marrocco, the first service member to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, received a rare double arm transplant Dec. 18 by a team of surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"It’s given me a lot of hope for the future," Marrocco said Tuesday about the surgery. "I feel like I’ve been given a second chance."

Marrocco still doesn’t have much feeling in his arms, and it could be two to three years before he is able to fully use them. Nerves regenerate at a pace of about one inch a month, meaning recovery can take a long time, said the lead surgeon, Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee.

"The progress will be slow but the outcome will be rewarding," Lee said. "Brendan tells us he is up to the challenge."

Marrocco said the arms, though they once belonged to someone else, already feel like a part of him. He instinctively scratches his head and touches his face with them. Sometimes he folds his new arms in his lap. The arms make him feel like his old self — like he was before his injuries.

"They have truly become a part of my everyday life in the last few weeks," he said. "It’s like I went back four years ago and I’m me again."

Along the way, Marrocco has become an inspiration to those around him with his positive attitude in the face of grievous loss.

"His personality and his perseverance — he doesn’t have an inch of self-pity anywhere in his DNA," said Lt. Col. Barrett Bernard, who commands the 2-27 Wolfhounds at Schofield and was in Iraq in 2009 when Marrocco was wounded.

Bernard visited Marrocco six or seven times at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

"He’s the kind of person that when you get done talking to him, the next morning when you are looking in the mirror, you say to yourself, ‘I’m going to be a better man because of him,’" Bernard said.

Tuesday’s display of Marrocco’s new arms was a long way removed from Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, when he and other Schofield soldiers were returning to Forward Operating Base Summerall in Bayji.

An explosive projectile slammed through Marrocco’s big mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, known as an MRAP, piercing the driver’s-side door he was sitting next to.

His injuries included the loss of his arms and legs, a severed left carotid artery, a broken nose and left eye socket, the loss of eight teeth, severe lacerations and burns on his face and neck.

"When we put him on the mede­vac bird … the colonel (in command of 2-27) and I had no idea he was going to survive. We were concerned he was going to pass," said Bernard, who was then the battalion’s executive officer. "We thought it was a miracle that he was alive."

He was given prosthetic arms but never fully adjusted to using them. He had become somewhat proficient using the left one, but rarely used the right because it was bulky and hard to maneuver.

The 13-hour surgery involved a team of 16 surgeons. Doctors first attached the bone using metal plates and screws, Lee said. Teams of doctors then sutured the muscles and tendons and then the blood vessels using a microscope. Next they repaired the nerves before attaching the skin.

Marrocco is one of seven patients in the United States to have undergone successful double arm transplants. He retired from the Army as a sergeant last year and doesn’t have a job, but has earned veterans’ disability benefits.

Marrocco said he asked Lee whether he could give him new legs, too. Although doctors in Europe are transplanting legs, Lee is not yet comfortable with the procedure and said more testing is needed.

Doctors don’t want Marrocco using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery.

That’s the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.

"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better and you’re still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There’s a lot of people who will say you can’t do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."

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The Associated Press, Baltimore Sun and Star-Advertiser reporter William Cole contributed to this report.