Surgeons from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore are prepping up to do the first ever Penis Transplant in the United States, after getting the approval to operate on as many as 60 U.S. veterans who received a genitourinary injury during their deployment.

            "These genitourinary injuries are not things we hear about or read about very often," said Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, the chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins. "I think one would agree it is as devastating as anything that our wounded warriors suffer, for a young man to come home in his early 20s with the pelvic area completely destroyed."

            According to the report from People, the penis that will be transplanted to the veterans would come from a deceased donor. If the operation will be successful, patients who received the transplanted penis can once again urinate, feel sensation, and have sex.

            "To be missing the penis and parts of the scrotum is devastating," said Dr. Richard J. Redett, director of pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins. "That part of the body is so strongly associated with your sense of self and identity as a male. These guys have given everything they have."

            The New York Times reported that there are only two penis transplant operations recorded in the medical journal.

            The first one occurred in China in 2006 but was a failure. The recipient of the transplanted organ in China returned just a few weeks after his operation due to 'apparent psychological rejection.'

             The second penis transplant happened in South Africa and was successful. The young man got his penis amputated after a messed up circumcision. He got his new penis last year and it is reported that he recently became a father.

            According to the doctors, the transplanted organ will only be the penis, so it is still possible for a man to conceive a child after receiving a transplanted penis, as long as they didn't receive any injury in their testicles.

            The main goal of the transplant is to be able to treat the 'hidden' injury that some of the U.S. Veterans have suffered.

            "They say, 'I want to feel whole again,' said Dr. Gerald Brandacher, the scientific director of the reconstructive transplantation program at Johns Hopkins. "It's very hard to imagine what it means if you don't feel whole. There are very subtle things that we take for granted that this transplant is able to give back."