The first US patient to be given a penis transplant has hailed the operation a success after leaving hospital - but admitted it took him ”a few days” to look at his new bodypart.
Thomas Manning was given a dead donor’s organ during gruelling surgery lasting 15 hours at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Now, three weeks later, he is travelling with his mother and a family friend back to his home in Halifax, Massachusetts, looking forward to a spaghetti dinner and a night in his own bed.
Mr Manning, 64, said as he prepared to leave his hospital room: "We're going to go home, just take it easy, have a nice, relaxing night.
"It's almost all over. The worst of it is all done."
After two follow-up surgeries, Mr Manning says he can urinate normally and walk around. But sexual function is still months away, and reproduction is impossible because he did not receive new testes.
Mr Manning, whose penis was amputated after he was diagnosed with penile cancer in 2012, never married and has no children.
When he described looking under the bandages for the first time, he became emotional. He still has dozens of stitches and the swelling has yet to subside.
"It took me a few days to look at it, so confidence comes and goes," he said, blinking away tears.
"It's one of those things that, if you look at it, it doesn't look too good."
But he is optimistic that he will make a full recovery in the coming months and that his body will accept the transplant. Through it all, Mr Manning said he had not felt any pain from the surgery.
"I got the A-Team here," he said. "They've been taking care of me like you can't imagine. I'm recovering no matter what they do to me."
Mr Manning is the third man in the world to receive a new penis, following transplants in South Africa in 2014 and China in 2005.
Additional reporting by the Press Association.
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