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 The man who received the first penis transplant in the United States left a hospital on Wednesday, three and a half weeks after the operation. He is recovering well, with good blood flow to the transplanted organ and no signs of rejection, his doctors said. 
 
 “Everything seems to be healing,” said the patient, Thomas Manning, 64, a bank courier from Halifax, Mass. “Everything’s fine. It’s going to get better, too.” 
 
 Mr. Manning needed the transplant because his penis was removed in 2012 to treat cancer. The replacement organ, from a deceased donor, was attached during a 15-hour operation on May 8 and 9 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 
 
 “He’s doing great,” said Dr. Curtis L. Cetrulo, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. “So far, so good. We’re very pleased.” 
 
 Dr. Cetrulo and Dr. Dicken Ko, the director of the hospital’s regional urology program, said that the operation had accomplished two main objectives: to restore normal-looking genitals and urinary function. 
 
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 “He’s standing up and he’s aiming, just like the good old days,” Dr. Ko said. 
 
 The doctors said that they were hopeful that sensation and sexual function would also return, but that the process involved nerve regeneration and would occur over months. In hand transplants, Dr. Cetrulo said, sensation “comes back rapidly at a rudimentary level, but we’ve then seen continuing improvement for five years.” 
 
 Mr. Manning must take anti-rejection drugs every day for the rest of his life, and he will see doctors twice a week for the next few weeks to check for signs of rejection and adjust medicine doses. 
 
 His surgery was experimental, part of a research program with the eventual goal of helping veterans who sustained pelvic injuries in combat, as well as cancer patients and accident victims. 
 
 Another patient, burned in a car accident, will receive a transplant as soon as a matching donor becomes available, Dr. Cetrulo said. 
 
 Surgeons at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are also planning to perform penis transplants and have had a combat veteran, injured in Afghanistan, on a waiting list for several months. 

 Thomas Manning, of Halifax, Mass., becomes emotional while speaking of his surgical ordeal as he prepares to be discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Boston. Manning... (Associated Press) 
 
 Thomas Manning, of Halifax, Mass., becomes emotional while speaking of his surgical ordeal as he prepares to be discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Boston. Manning is the first man in the United States to undergo a penis transplant. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (Associated Press) 
 
 BOSTON (AP) — A man who received the nation's first penis transplant calls the operation a success and is going home. 
 
 Thomas Manning left Massachusetts General Hospital on Wednesday, three weeks after the grueling 15-hour surgery. The 64-year-old traveled with his mother and a family friend back to his home in Halifax, where he looked forward to a spaghetti dinner and a night in his own bed. 
 
 "We're going to go home, just take it easy, have a nice, relaxing night," Manning said as he prepared to leave his hospital room. "It's almost all over. The worst of it is all done." 
 
 After two follow-up surgeries, Manning said, he can urinate normally and he's back to walking around. Sexual function is still months away, though, and reproduction won't be possible because he did not receive new testes. 
 
 Manning, whose penis was amputated after he was diagnosed with penile cancer in 2012, never married and has no children. 
 
 When he described looking under the bandages for the first time, he became emotional. He still has dozens of stitches, and the swelling has yet to subside. 
 
 "It took me a few days to look at it, so confidence comes and goes," he said, blinking away tears. "It's one of those things that, if you look at it, it doesn't look too good." 
 
 But Manning is optimistic that he'll make a full recovery in the coming months and that his body will accept the transplant. Through it all, Manning said he hasn't felt any pain from the surgery. 
 
 "I got the A-Team here," he said. "They've been taking care of me like you can't imagine. I'm recovering no matter what they do to me." 
 
 Manning is the third man in the world to receive a new penis, following transplants in South Africa in 2014 and China in 2005. 
 
 The procedure could benefit cancer survivors, accident victims and wounded soldiers. By sharing his story, Manning said he wants to give others hope in the operation. 
 
 Soon after his amputation, Manning started asking his doctor about the possibility of a transplant. When he was chosen and arrived at the hospital in May, it still felt as though he was just a local guy getting treated at the local hospital, he said. Only last week, lying in his hospital bed, it had finally sunk in that he was the first in the U.S. to get the procedure. 
 
 "I didn't think too much of it, and then it hit me that I was the only one," he said, his voice faltering. "That's when it hit me."
– Since 2012, Thomas Manning had been forced to sit to urinate, the result of a partial penectomy he had to undergo due to penile cancer, which left him with a member just an inch long. Today, the 64-year-old is "standing up and he’s aiming, just like the good old days," says Dr. Dicken Ko on the occasion of Manning leaving Massachusetts General Hospital on Wednesday, roughly three weeks after he became the first American to have a penis transplant. The New York Times reports all news is good news so far: He's now able to walk, blood flow is sufficient, healing is progressing, and there are no indications of rejection. He'll have twice-weekly doctor visits in the short term; sensation and sexual function have yet to return, but are expected to within months. Manning's destination upon leaving the Boston hospital was his Halifax home. On the docket for last night: spaghetti and climbing into his own bed. "The worst of it is all done," he says, though he wasn't entirely chipper. The AP reports Manning was "blinking away tears" as he said that it took a few days to work up the courage to look at his new organ, and "it's one of those things that, if you look at it, it doesn't look too good." Dozens of stitches remain, and there is still a lot of swelling, though he said the entire experience has been basically pain-free.