Hand Transplant Is 2nd Performed in U.S.
A Michigan man whose left hand was blown off by a defective firework received a new hand Saturday.
Jerry Fisher, 36, became the second person to receive a hand transplant in the United States.
He was in stable condition following a 13-hour operation at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., the same hospital where the nation’s first hand transplant was performed in January 1999.
The hospital did not release any information about the donor.
Fisher is right-handed, and that hand was not injured in the 1996 accident. However, he said he underwent the transplant because he would prefer to have two hands, rather than use a prosthesis.
Before the operation, Fisher spoke with the first transplant recipient, Matthew Scott, who says his new left hand is functioning well.
Scott, a natural left-hander also injured by a firecracker, offered words of encouragement and wisdom.
“One of the things that I did discuss with Jerry was the amount of effort and work that’s going to need to go into this,” said Scott, 39, who oversees the clinical education and practices of paramedics at Virtual Health in Gibbsboro, N.J. “I think that I probably had a little bit of an unrealistic expectation that things were going to be a lot easier than they turned out to be.”
Scott said Fisher has a better understanding of the difficulties than Scott did after his operation.
Nearly two years after his transplant surgery, Scott said the function in his left hand isn’t quite up to that of his right, “but it has far surpassed the function of the prosthesis that I had for 13 years.”
A lot was learned from Scott’s operation and recovery that could help Fisher, said Barbara Mackovic, a hospital spokeswoman.
“We don’t know. It could be he may get better function,” she said. “This is an experimental procedure and we’re learning. The more hand transplants that are performed around the world, and that information is shared among all of the surgeons, the more we’ll all find out.”
More than a dozen hand transplants have been performed worldwide.
The July 1996 blast removed Fisher’s left hand about one-quarter of the way up his arm.
The hospital is paying the cost of the hand transplant procedure, which Mackovic estimated at $150,000. Fisher would not have been a transplant candidate, however, if his wife’s health insurance carrier had not agreed to pay for the $20,000 to $30,000 worth of anti-rejection medication he will need every year.
Fisher said he especially looked forward to being able to help his wife with their infant son, one of three boys.
