AKIPRESS.COM - An 8-year-old boy who lost his hands and feet to a serious infection has become the youngest patient to receive a double-hand transplant, surgeons said Tuesday.

Zion Harvey's forearms were heavily bandaged but his hands were visible as he flashed some big smiles Tuesday at a hospital news conference. He demonstrated his still-delicate grip and described waking up with new hands as "weird at first, but then good," reports AP.

The boy, from the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills, Maryland, received the transplant earlier this month at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, though doctors did not publicly disclose the nearly 11-hour operation until this week.

A 40-person medical team used steel plates and screws to attach the old and new bones. Surgeons then painstakingly reconnected Zion's arteries, veins, muscles, tendons and nerves.

"He woke up smiling," said Dr. L. Scott Levin, who heads the hand transplant program. "There hasn't been one whimper, one tear, one complaint."

Zion, a bright and precocious child Levin described as having "a maturity that is way beyond his 8 years," contracted sepsis as a toddler. The resulting multiple organ failure forced the amputation of his hands and feet; by age 4, he needed a kidney transplant, receiving the organ from his mother.

Leg prosthetics have allowed Zion to be very active, including walking, running and jumping. He learned to use his forearms to write, eat and play video games and has been attending school. Physicians hope he'll now be able to achieve more milestones, including his goals of throwing a football and playing on the monkey bars.

"It was no more of a risk than a kidney transplant," his mother, Pattie Ray, said. "So I felt like I was willing to take that risk for him, if he wanted it — to be able to play monkey bars and football."