Health

Hand Transplant In Trouble

April 30, 2000 / 1:02 PM EDT / AP

A New Zealand man who underwent the world's first hand transplant is in danger of losing the hand 18 months after it was grafted onto his arm, a hospital spokesman said Sunday.

Clint Hallam, 49, is receiving treatment at Perth's Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital for rejection of the hand, the spokesman said, refusing to give further details.

Hallam made international headlines in September 1998 when a team of surgeons in Lyon, France, grafted the hand of a 41-year-old motorcyclist on to his forearm in a 13-hour operation.

Doctors in Louisville, Ky., have performed a similar operation since then, and a team led by the French surgeon who attached Hallam's new hand has performed a double arm transplant.

Hallam was serving a two-year sentence for fraud in New Zealand when he lost his right hand in a chainsaw accident in prison.

Last year, he said he hoped one day to learn to play the piano and told the Sunday Times newspaper he already was performing simple tasks with the hand such as holding a cup of coffee and swimming.