Up until that point, Kepner had used prosthetics and other means to function, but was willing to take the risk for the chance at new, real hands. Kepner lost both his hands due to sepsis in 1999, according to Time.
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“I can do absolutely nothing”, Kepner tells the New York Times. I sit in my chair all day and wear my TV out, ‘ he added. And partially removing the transplanted hands wouldn’t spare him from the regimen of drugs needed to keep his body from attacking the foreign body parts.
In an interview with TIME published today he revealed that the transplant was unsuccessful and he has never been able to utilise his hands. But Kepner’s story highlights the sacrifice that can come from taking a risk for a better life-and for scientific advancement. Up until the hand transplants, he had been using prosthetics, which enabled him to drive and remain employed – now he can do neither. Ten years after the infection he underwent surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to attach the donor hands. If doctors were to completely remove the transplants, there would be no guarantee he’d be able to go back to using prosthetics.
But after seven years, 64-year-old Kepner said he’s unwilling to go through more surgeries for little payoff. “I am not going through all those operations again”, he says.
Dr W.P. Andrew Lee, who carried out the complex procedure, admitted that Mr Kepner’s hands were not working as well as other transplant patients. Lee says the need for removal is uncommon and has occurred in six out of 100 similar transplants in the USA and Europe. Out of the four patients, including Kepner, who received bilateral hand/arm transplants under the care of the same surgical team, three have had significant functional return in their hands.
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“You can’t put a price on donating an organ that’s going to save somebody’s life or donating hands that will change somebody’s whole life and independence”, Valarie Kepner told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette immediately after the surgery. Lee added that uniform results aren’t expected among all surgeries, “but we have been encouraged by the functional return in the great majority of our recipients whose lives have been transformed by the procedure”.
