Man who lost hand in explosion 13 years ago gets transplant

The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A man whose left hand was blown off while playing with a powerful firecracker 13 years ago received the first hand transplant in the United States. Hours later, the new hand was pink and warm.

The 141/2-hour surgery, completed Monday morning, was the second such transplant ever. But doctors cautioned that the patient, Matthew David Scott, had a high risk of blood clots and other complications in the first 24 hours. There is as much as a 50 percent chance the hand will be rejected in the next year, forcing Scott to take powerful anti-rejection drugs that suppress the immune system and increase the risk of infection, cancer and death. Scar tissue could develop, snagging the spliced tendons. "The real battle and unknown starts now," said Dr. Warren C. Breidenbach, who led the surgical team at Jewish Hospital. Breidenbach said first signs were good for Scott, 37. The "hookup" of veins and arteries had worked, providing blood for the hand to turn pink. Scott was delighted. When bandages are pulled back and the hand is revealed, "he stares at it and grins," his friend James Brown said. Scott, a paramedic, lost his dominant hand in a Dec. 23, 1985, blast from an M-80, which resembles a firecracker but is far more powerful. M-80s have been illegal in the United States since 1966.

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