World’s first double leg transplant carried out in Spain

A Spanish medical team has carried out the world’s first double leg transplant, hospital sources said in the eastern city of Valencia.

The young patient could not use prostheses, making a transplant the only alternative to him spending his life in a wheelchair, medical team leader Pedro Cavadas said earlier.

The operation was authorised in May 2010, but the medical team needed to wait for a donor. The operation, which lasted an entire night, was performed at Valencia's La Fe hospital. Cavadas has also previously carried out face and arm transplants.