The world's first hand-transplant patient has had his new hand amputated today following what his doctors called irreversible rejection stemming from his neglect of proper treatment.
Australian microsurgeon Mr Earl Owen, who co-led the international team that performed the transplant in France in 1998, said the amputation of Mr Clint Hallam's hand was performed in London.
He said the Australian transplant recipient had insisted on the amputation.
One of the eight surgeons who had carried out the transplant performed the amputation. It was not clear when the operation was performed.
"It was a very good operation...He is in excellent condition and he will be leaving hospital shortly," Mr Owen said.
Mr Hallam hit headlines last year when he said he wanted doctors to cut off his "dead man's hand", saying he had no feeling in it.
He made history when the team of surgeons from France, Australia, Britain and Italy attached the right hand and forearm of a brain-dead 41-year-old man to his upper arm in a 13-hour operation in September 1998.
Mr Owen said in a statement that Mr Hallam had repeatedly failed to stay under the regular care of team members after the transplant.
"We know that he voluntarily went without drugs for weeks at a time over the following two years and failed to follow the plan he willingly agreed to before the actual transplant was performed," the statement said.
"This frustrated our attempts to treat him optimally, making it inevitable that irreversible rejection would intervene, necessitating an eventual amputation in the interests of his own health."
It said the team members "regret" the outcome, but contrasted it with the successful progress of six other hand-transplant patients since 1998, including the first double hand-transplant performed by the same team.
Mr Owen said he was not personally disappointed: "Because what we learned from him is quite phenomenal and it helps us with the ones that follow."
Reuters