X-Message-Number: 12825
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 16:56:05 -0500
From: Jan Coetzee <>
Subject: Transplant's Grip Comes to Life

First U.S. Hand Transplant's Grip Comes to Life

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - A New Jersey man who 10 months ago became
the first person in
the United States to undergo a hand transplant is now able to open doors
and tie his shoes,
doctors said on Tuesday.

Matthew Scott, 38, has made excellent progress and ``range of motion,
grip and sensation have
partially returned sufficiently to allow good hand function,'' Jewish
Hospital said in a statement.

Scott, of Absecon, New Jersey, lost his left hand in a fireworks
accident nearly 10 years ago.
During a 15-hour operation on Jan. 24 and 25 doctors replaced it with a
hand taken from a donor
who had just died.

The hospital statement said Scott uses his new hand to open his car
door, turn door knobs, pick
up and hold objects, and tie his shoes. He returned to work June 1 as a
clinical coordinator at
Virtua Health in New Jersey and as an instructor at Camden County
College.

``This Thanksgiving, which is exactly 10 months to the day of my
surgery, I am most thankful for
the courage and generosity of the donor family,'' the hospital quoted
Scott as saying. ``It was their
compassion that made this unbelievable gift possible.''

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