Hand Transplant So when we think about...

Hand Transplant

So when we think about transplants, we automatically think about internal organ transplants first, like the heart, lungs, liver, etc.

We usually don’t think of tissue and cell transplants that people get. Here’s a great example of a man named Clint Hallam who received a hand transplant from a deceased donor in 1998.

Hallam lost his hand in circular-saw accident at Rolleston prison in 1984, where he was serving time for fraud.

The original replant (the reattachment of the severed limb) didn’t take, and he had his hand amputated.

A surgery team led by Australian Earl Owen and Frenchman Jean-Michel Dubernard transplanted a new hand on 23 September 1998 in a 13-hour long operation in Lyon, France.

After an initial period of over two years in which he could move and even write with the fingers of the new hand, Hallam voluntarily stopped taking his immunosuppressive drugs. The hand was amputated on 3 February 2001.

Either way it’s pretty impressive to see how much medicine can do to help people. And more importantly, how much we can help others even after we pass.