Sherrie Walter found a lump in her ear two years ago. “My dermatologist looked at it for less than five minutes and said, ‘You have cancer,'” Walter said. That diagnosis started a two-year journey.
Walter’s ear had to be removed, but in a twist of fate, doctors at Johns Hopkins were able to grow a new ear on her arm and reattach it to her face.
Learning her options
After surgery, Walter’s only option was a prosthetic ear, which would have to be taped on every day.
“The concept of having to tape something to my skin every day didn’t feel like that was who I was,” the 42-year-old mother of two told ABC News. “I could just see my kids running around with it, yelling, ‘I have mommy’s ear!'”
Her doctor agreed, a fake ear didn’t make much sense.
“I described to her how prosthetic ears have to be fixated somehow and sometimes fall off,” said Dr. Patrick Byrne, an associate professor in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Sherrie’s skull bone had been removed, so the only way of attaching a prosthetic would be through tape and glue. We both agreed that wasn’t an option.”
A groundbreaking procedure
Doctors decided to take pieces of cartilage from Walter’s ribs, form an ear, and implant it in her arm. Usually doctors can reconstruct an ear using skin and tissue from around the ear, but all of that was removed on Walter, so doctors decided to try something new.
“It was under my arm for about four months,” Walter said. “I just thought I was something from a science fiction movie.”
The whole process took about 20 months. The ear has been reattached to Walter’s face. With a few adjustments doctors say the ear will look as normal as any other ear.
What do you think about this procedure? Could you live with an ear growing on your arm?
