www.boingboing.net/2009/10/02/man-with-transplante.html
permalink Jeff Kepner, the first person in England to receive two hand transplants, is now home after four months of recovery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the United States.
Handtranssss In a strange way, the double transplant was a bit of setback for Kepner, who had lost part of both of his arms and legs in 1999. Doctors amputated the limbs in a bid to save his life after Kepner came down with a strep infection that plunged him into a coma. After the amputations, Kepner was outfitted with prosthetic hands and feet and forged on with his life. "He had gotten quite used to his hooks," his mother says of her son's artificial arms. " Now in therapy (after the transplants), he is learning how to pick up small items, like cotton balls, and catch a ball, but he still has no feeling in his fingers. The nerves grow about an inch a month from where the hands were attached, at the forearm. "They told him it will be at least until the end of the year before those nerves get down into those fingers," Doris Schafer said.
October 2, 2009 10:01 AM I wonder how many billions of dollars he had to pay for those new hands. Probably he'll be in debt up to his eyeballs for the rest of his life. And then that goes to show that only the extremely rich can afford to have hands sewn on.
October 2, 2009 10:31 AM Reminds me of that classic horror movie The Hands of Orlac, wherein a famous pianist loses his hands after a plane crash and gets new hands that formerly belonged to a serial killer who choked people to death.
However, vis the health-care debate, the man does not appear to be at all wealthy (he worked as a manager in a Borders bookstore), and likely had the service performed pro-bono. I have to wonder, were the man in fact from England, whether NHS would have approved giving him a procedure like this when he seemed to be functioning reasonably well with the prosthetics.
October 2, 2009 11:15 AM However, vis the health-care debate, the man does not appear to be at all wealthy (he worked as a manager in a Borders bookstore), and likely had the service performed pro-bono. I have to wonder, were the man in fact from England, whether NHS would have approved giving him a procedure like this when he seemed to be functioning reasonably well with the prosthetics. Do you seriously think any insurance company with a legally defensible option to refuse payment for this procedure would pay for it, thus taking money out of their bonuses and shareholders' dividends? This type of procedure would almost certainly be experimental (and risky) anywhere. To restate the genuine situation in Britain: if a treatment is available privately but not on the NHS, those with money or expensive insurance are free to pay for it. Rich British people get the same treatment as rich Americans. An American who is unemployed has to rely on charity or bankruptcy, or be lucky enough to qualify for medicaid.
October 2, 2009 12:43 PM @18 Kind of like that guy in the Burger King commercials. What if the person they belonged to before was a serial masturbating nose picker?
October 2, 2009 1:41 PM What if the person they belonged to before was a serial masturbating nose picker? Then the hands will thank the heavens for this turn of events.
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