PARIS, June 15 (UPI) -- A doctor in France says the man who was the first person to undergo a successful face and double-hand transplant has died of a heart attack.
Surgeon Laurent Lantieri said the death of the French national, whose identity was not reported, was apparently caused by a heart problem and not the result of his groundbreaking transplant operation, The Daily Telegraph said Monday.
"We have no explanation for the cardiac arrest," Lantieri said, adding an autopsy may offer additional clues to man's recent death.
The April surgery on the patient was made necessary after the man endured extensive burns in a 2004 accident, the Telegraph said.
Lantieri, a doctor at Henri Mondor University Hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil, said the patient died last Monday while doctors were conducting a follow-up procedure to take care of an infection.
"He developed a facial infection a few weeks after his operation, and during an operation to try to tackle the infection he suffered cardiac arrest," he told the Telegraph.
