First hand transplant in western United States

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 19 2011

Ms Emily Fennell, a 26-year-old California woman became the first person in the western United States to receive a hand transplant.

Fennell’s surgery and rehabilitation was conducted at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She had lost her right hand nearly five years ago in a automobile accident. The complex operation required surgeons to attach 23 tendons, two bones, two arteries and at least three nerves, explains Dr. Kodi Azari, the surgical director of UCLA’s hand transplant program. He added that the match with the donor was perfect. He said, “It was identical. The color match was perfect. The size match was perfect. The blood group match was perfect.” It was the 13th such case in the United States and the first for the hospital.

“It has been surreal to see that I have a hand again, and be able to wiggle my fingers,” Fennell said in a hospital statement. Fennel says her goal is , “to just be able to function with it and not be able to think about it.”

“She is making the emotional transition from calling it ‘the’ hand to ‘my’ hand,” Azari said. “From a surgical standpoint, we achieved a good connection of the nerves and blood vessels, and the balance between the palm and back-of-the-hand tendons appears to be pristine.” Fennell is taking medication to keep her body from rejecting the hand and is also receiving intensive occupational therapy to help her brain accept it and learn how to use it.