Amazing that they can do this...and it works

Doctors tweet rare double hand transplant: Kentucky surgeons used Twitter to post updates on 20-hour surgery

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Doctors performed a rare double hand transplant on a burn victim who is recovering Wednesday after the nearly 18-hour surgery.

The transplant at a Louisville hospital was only the third in the nation. Jewish Hospital also performed the world's first successful single hand transplant in 1999.

Doctors started the operation at 7 p.m. Tuesday and finished 17½ hours later on Wednesday afternoon. A doctor outside the operating room posted updates on Twitter.

"We have a long way to go to know ... but it looks good at this point," said Dr. Joseph Kutz, a member of the surgery team. The patient was identified only as a man whose hands had been severely burned.

The surgeons who performed this transplant (and also the ones who performed the first successful single hand transplant in the world itself) are from the same practice that performed my carpal tunnel surgery (mine was done through their Lexington office, although my surgeon, Dr William O'Neill, has since moved to another practice).

I wish the patient well, and I hope it will be a wonderful success.