The nine-hour operation completed on Monday was the first double hand transplant in the United States.
Posted on 09/30/2009 8:09:58 PM PDT by underthestreetlite
LANCASTER, Pa. – The mother of the nation's first double hand transplant patient says he's out of the hospital and looking forward to returning to his wife and daughter in Georgia.
Doris Schafer told the Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era that her son, Jeff Kepner, visited her over the weekend in Lancaster. She says he plans to return to Augusta, Ga., at the end of this week.
Schafer says Kepner is considerably happier than when she saw him in June at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, about a month after the transplant.
She says her son still has no feeling in his fingers but is learning how to catch a ball and pick up small items. His doctors have said nerves grow about an inch a month.
Kepner lost his hands a decade ago to a bacterial infection.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
First, thank God for this medical success. Now that we know it worked out well, I can make the joke about having a slasher’s hands transplanted out of them 70’s movies....
Can’t I?
Prayers for this person.
The nine-hour operation completed on Monday was the first double hand transplant in the United States.
In 1999, Kepner lost both hands and feet to a strep infection. As the bacterial infection spread throughout his body, it stopped blood flow to his limbs and shut down his liver and kidneys. While most strep infections are mild, in some cases the bacteria can destroy muscles, fat and skin tissue and cause toxic shock syndrome.
Wow. Amazing accomplishment.
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