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U.S. doctors grow ear on cancer patient's arm

Written by: QMI Agency
Oct. 4, 2012

An ear grows under Sherrie Walter's arm. The skin cancer sufferer lost her left ear and doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland grew another using her own tissue under her forearm. (John Hopkins Hospital/HO)

Doctors in Maryland have successfully grown an ear on a skin cancer patient's arm to replace the one she lost to the disease.

Sherrie Walter grew the cartilage for a left ear on her forearm for about four months before doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore surgically moved it to her head.

"I just thought I was something from science fiction," the 42-year-old mother of two told ABC News.

In what's being called the most complicated ear reconstruction in North America, doctors removed cartilage from her ribs and put it under her skin.

Last week, surgeons created an earlobe and reshaped it to look like her other ear.

She'll likely need a few more surgeries to complete the ear.

She lost her previous one from basal-cell carcinoma, that started with a sore and eventually led to the removal of her entire ear.

Walter said she's happy to not suffer with the alternative - a prosthetic ear - that would have had to be attached every day with tape and glue.

"The concept of having to tape something to my skin every day didn't feel like that was who I was," Walter told ABC News. "I could just see my kids running around with it, yelling, 'I have mommy's ear!'"

 

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