First U.S. Double Hand Transplant Recipient Wants Them Removed

Seven years after making history as America's first double hand transplant recipient, Jeff Kepner still doesn't have functionality in either extremity, he told Time.

Kepner, 64, would like to have the non-functional hands removed, as they've made him largely immobile – much more so than his initial prosthetics, which he began using after losing his real hands to sepsis after getting strep throat in 1999.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy.

"From day one I have never been able to use my hands," he said. "I can do absolutely nothing. I sit in my chair all day and wear my TV out."



The experimental transplant is not so easily reversed, Dr. Vijay Gorantla, the administrative medical director of the Pittsburgh Reconstructive Transplant Program at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told Time.

Gorntala said that while he and Kepner have discussed a full or partial removal of his transplanted hands, it's uncertain whether he could return to prosthetics. If possible, rigorous physical therapy would then be required.

"We believe that additional, minor surgical procedures – and commitment to more physical therapy – could improve the function of his hands to help him with activities of daily living," Gorntala said.

Kepner went into the nine-hour surgery knowing there was a risk that his body would reject the hands. And now, he would rather not go "through all those operations again, he told Time.

Further explaining the delicate situation, Kepner's original surgeon from 2009 – Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee – said that of four bilateral hand/arm transplants performed by his team, three have been successful.

"Mr. Kepner's transplanted hands do not function as well as those of other hand transplant recipients," Lee admitted in an email.

Now, Kepner's wife – a recent retiree – takes care of him full time. He told Time he feels "0 percent" functional, as he also lost his limbs to the bacteria and walks with two prosthesis.

He doesn't feel anger at the surgeons or what he sees as a failed operation, though. As, "that's the chance I took."