Limb Job

After a mechanic from the United Kingdom lost his penis, medical innovators fashioned him a replacement out of his existing tissue — and it now rests on his left forearm.

45-year-old Malcolm MacDonald suffered from a perineum infection which led to a severe case of sepsis in 2014, which spread to his extremities, turning his fingers and toes black. Then it began to also affect his genitalia. "When I saw my penis go black I was beside myself," MacDonald said. "It was like a horror film...I knew deep down it was gone and I was going to lose it. Then one day it just dropped off on to the floor."

For two years afterwards, MacDonald says his life "fell apart", until he was referred to Professor David Ralph, a urologist at University College London Hospital who specializes in penile reconstruction surgery.  Speaking to The Sun, Mr MacDonald said he was elated to have a “chance at a new start” and hoped it would boost his self-confidence, as well as enable him to do “simple things like using the loo”.

Ralph and his team partially removed a section of skin, blood vessels and nerves from MacDonald's left arm, and shaped it into a replacement phallus. A urethra was then created via surgery, and two tubes and a pump were inserted which would allow the new penis to achieve "mechanical" erections. Once the penis is finished, the shaft will be detached from the arm, allowing it to grow additional skin and tissue while dangling freely.

The original intention was for the new penis to be surgically reattached to his groin in 2018, two years after the original procedure. However, due to various scheduling issues, illness, and more recently widespread delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, MacDonald's new penis has been on his arm for the last four years — and it looks like it might be staying put for the foreseeable future.