Double hand transplant recipient released

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A man who received the first double hand transplant in the United States has been released from a hospital after treatment of serious rashes, officials said.

Jeff Kepner, 58, of Augusta, Ga., received his new hands at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Montefiore in May, but was re-hospitalized Feb. 2, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

He had rashes patients sometimes develop during the first year after surgery that often indicate the body is rejecting a transplant, doctors said.

Kepner was released from UPMC Tuesday after successful treatment of the rashes, on both hands, with an immunosuppressant ointment, hospital spokeswoman Amy Dugas said.

The surgery is part of a UPMC program aimed at reducing the amount of post-transplant, anti-rejection medications patients take.

Kepner, a former pastry chef, received his transplanted hands from a 23-year-old Pennsylvania man who had just died.

The bacterial infection Strep A led to the amputation of Kepner's hands and feet in May 1999. Doctors failed to catch the often-deadly infection until after it had shut down his organs and stopped the flow of blood to his limbs, the Tribune-Review said.