Amputee Comic Approved For Double Arm Transplant

A quick follow-up that has me crossing my fingers — and feeling grateful to have fingers to cross.

We wrote last year about film professor Will Lautzenheiser, who lost all his limbs to flesh-eating bacteria and became a "sit-down comic:" Did you hear the one about the comedian with no arms and legs?

Now, Brigham and Women's Hospital has just announced that Will has been approved for a double arm transplant, once a donor is found. From the Brigham:

Will Lautzenheiser, a former professor of film production and screenwriting at Boston University and Montana State University, has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at BWH for a bilateral arm transplant following completion of a rigorous preoperative evaluation. Lautzenheiser, 40, became a quad amputee in 2011 following a life threatening streptococcal infection.

BWH is working in collaboration with the New England Organ Bank (NEOB), which will now actively search for an appropriate donor for Lautzenheiser.

The Brigham has posted a video about the planned operation here. And yes, Will may lose the basis for some of his best material — but I somehow suspect he won't mind...