Story highlights Zion Harvey, the first child to receive a double hand transplant, can now grip a baseball bat

Results show that surgery is medically and functionally successful under certain circumstances, doctors say

(CNN) Zion Harvey was the world's first.

In 2015, the Baltimore boy made history as the first child to successfully receive a double hand transplant. Now, at 10 years old, Zion can use his new hands to perform everyday tasks that other children might take for granted, such as reading and writing, making his lunch and gripping a baseball bat.

"He was able to grip a baseball bat, which was something he wanted to do, by about a year, but now he can do it more powerfully with more coordinated motion between the right and the left hand," said Dr. Sandra Amaral, medical director of the hand transplant program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who was involved in Zion's care.

"Most of his functional outcomes or progress have been really related to doing things more efficiently and effectively," she said. "A few new things that he can do: zip his pants, rip open a granola bar by himself and manipulate it to eat it."

Additionally, Zion can go to the bathroom without any help, said Dr. L. Scott Levin, chair of the department of orthopaedic surgery at Penn Medicine and surgical director of the hand transplantation program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who led the surgery.

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