Brendan Marrocco

Brendan Marrocco of Staten Island, New York was the first US soldier serving in Iraq or Afghanistan to survive a quadruple amputation and the first person to receive a bilateral arm transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the seventh in the United States.

Service career On January 15, 2008, Staten Island Native Brendon Marrocco entered service in the United States Army. He completed his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia on May 2, 2008, after which, he volunteered for service in the Infantry. He was assigned to the 3rd Brigade, Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

In late October 2008, his unit was deployed to Iraq and stationed at Forward Operating Base Summerall for a twelve-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The surgery connected the bones, blood vessels, muscles, tendons, nerves, and skin on both arms, extending his left arm from the elbow and his right from below the shoulder. The transplant was coupled with a treatment of the deceased donor's bone marrow cells to help prevent rejection of the new limbs.

He was interviewed for the Health Resources & Services Administration website and YouTube channel in 2018, and the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center in 2023.