Sometimes when you’re a part of medical history things have a happy ending, but that’s certainly not the case with 64-year-old Jeff Kepner.
Seven years ago he was the first recipient of a double hand transplant in the United States, and whilst the finest minds in the business helped with the operation all has not ended well.
Kepner now says he would, if given the option, have them both removed. That, and more, from TIME:
“From day one I have never been able to use my hands,” he says. “I can do absolutely nothing. I sit in my chair all day and wear my TV out”…
In 1999, Kepner, of Augusta, Ga., lost his hands due to sepsis that started from a strep throat infection. He used prosthetics, and while life wasn’t easy, he was able to drive and keep a job—things that are impossible for him today.
Ten years after the infection, Kepner underwent a nine-hour surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to attach hands from a donor. Kepner knew there was a risk that his body could reject the hands or that the surgery wouldn’t be successful, but he had always assumed, and says he was told, that in a worst-case scenario he could have the new hands removed and go back to using prosthetics. He’s since learned that that option isn’t so simple…
Kepner says that after seven years, he’s tired of surgeries, and will likely keep the non-functioning hands attached to his body. “I am not going through all those operations again,” he says.
Kepner says that in hindsight he would not do the surgery again, but he does not criticize [sic] the doctors who did the operation. “That’s the chance you take,” he says, “and that’s the chance I took.”
For the full interview with Jeff head over HERE.
[source:time]
