Transplanted Hand Delights Amputee

An amputee who received a transplanted hand from a cadaver at a Kentucky hospital said that the joy of seeing his new left hand replaced the horror he had felt since waking from amputation surgery in 1985. “My first impression was, ‘Wow, 13 years has just evaporated,’ ” Matthew Scott said at a news conference at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., where the 15-hour operation to attach a new hand was completed Jan. 25. Scott was injured in 1985, when an M-80--a powerful firecracker--exploded in his hand. An unnamed donor provided the new hand for the 37-year-old Scott, of Absecon, N.J.