Doctors Attach One Hand, Remove Another

A second U.S. hand transplant was performed in early February in a 13-hour operation by an 18-member transplant team at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY.

A week later, a biopsy from a small piece of tissue from the back of the transplanted hand showed no signs of rejection. The patient, Jerry Fisher, has begun occupational and physical therapy and will continue hand therapy for two hours a day, six days a week. Once discharged from the hospital, he will stay in the Louisville area for at least three months to continue his therapy sessions. His doctors say he is making good progress.

Several weeks before this transplant took place, a doctor in London amputated the same hand he had attached in Lyon, France, in September 1998 to the forearm of Clint Hallam. The problem was that Hallam did not consistently take the anti-rejection medicine. Gradually, he lost much of the function he had regained earlier. By the time the hand was amputated, it had become inflamed and red from chronic rejection.



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