Doctors ‘grow’ new ear in soldier’s arm after she lost one in accident

Two years ago, a soldier from the US Army Pvt got into a car crash that resulted in the loss of her left ear. Luckily the soldier got the ear back, but it was grown in her arm.

The 21-year-old Shamika Burrage, who is a private in the US Army, survived a terrible car crash two years ago. Unfortunately, the girl lost her left ear in the accident but the Army plastic surgeons did their magic by doing some innovative techniques and ‘grew’ the ear in her right arm, which is the ‘first of its kind’ in the army.

The ear is not prosthetic, it is instead made of living tissue and was grown on Burrage’s own body. A cartilage from one of Burrage’s ribs was used for creating the shape of the ear. It was then implanted underneath the skin of her forearm. The skin was allowed to grow around the ear for many months, where it formed new blood vessels and allowed for feeling in the ear. It was later attached to Burrage’s head, as per The Washington Post.

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Though the reconstruction took numerous surgeries, once completed and healed, the ear looks and feels just real. The skin contains sensations because of fresh nerves and will help the blood to circulate through it just like an original organ. The army said that the soldier’s operation was success and she had recovered her hearing.

In the US army blog, Burrage said that she didn’t want the surgeries and planned to get a prosthetic ear. “I didn’t want to do [the reconstruction] but gave it some thought and came to the conclusion that it could be a good thing. I was going to go with the prosthetic, to avoid more scarring but I wanted a real ear.” While she was at first scared about going through with the reconstruction, she said she wanted to see what doctors could do, reported BGR.

Lt. Col. Owen Johnson III, the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the medical center, expressed, “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.”

Though the operation was the first time this kind in the US army, it is not new in the field of science and doctors have previously performed such surgeries.