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Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999

Hand transplant recipient counts himself as lucky

Kentucky man hopes operation will become commonplace someday for others in need

By BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press

   LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Matthew Scott smiles as he ponders the personal triumphs he longs to achieve with his famous new left hand - like slipping on his wedding ring and hoisting his two young sons.
   "I'm very well aware of what I've been lucky enough to receive," said Scott, 37, the nation's first hand transplant recipient.
   Carrie Marcell, hand transplant coordinator at Jewish Hospital, said more than 100 people have contacted her since Scott's historic 14-hour operation Jan. 24-25 at the Louisville hospital.
   Surgeons hope to perform several other hand transplants to gain a more thorough understanding of the procedure's effects. A couple of other people have cleared the review process and are deemed appropriate candidates for hand transplants, Marcell said.
   "Once the surgery was done, it really started picking up," she said. "We're constantly evaluating patients and have had a lot of interest. It's from all over the United States and from other countries."
   Potential candidates are put through medical, psychiatric and psychological tests. Their medical histories are scrutinized and they are bluntly told of the risks associated with the medication that suppresses the immune system, which is necessary to prevent the body from rejecting the foreign tissue in the new hand, taken from a cadaver.
   Some callers have asked about transplants to restore feet or lower legs, but they have been turned away.
   Only one other man in the world has a transplanted hand, an Australian who underwent the graft in France in September. An attempt at a hand transplant was made in the 1960s, but it failed. Scott hopes to talk with the Australian recipient someday.
   Scott said he considers the new hand his own and has marveled at the similarity in size and color with his right hand.
   The new hand also offers a chance to blot out his own tragedy when his left hand was blown off in a fireworks explosion.
   "I certainly think I've been given the ability to go back and right, in my mind, what was wrong and to perhaps put to rest an unfortunate event that happened in my life 13 years ago," he said.
   

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