In 1998, New Zealander Clint Hallam made history by becoming the first person of the modern era to receive a hand transplant. The operation, performed in France, was considered a major advance for medicine and sparked hope that this type of procedure could change the lives of thousands of people.
However, what seemed like a success ended unexpectedly.
Just two years after the surgery, Hallam asked for the transplanted hand to be amputated again. According to doctors, the patient stopped taking the immunosuppressive medication needed to prevent organ rejection, which caused irreversible deterioration of the graft. He, on the other hand, said that he never truly managed to identify with the hand and no longer wanted to continue the treatment.
Specialists insisted that the problem had not been the surgery, but rather the discontinuation of treatment, since a transplant of this kind requires lifelong medication to prevent the immune system from attacking the received tissue.
Despite the outcome, the case marked a turning point in medicine.
Since then, numerous hand transplants have been performed in different countries, many of them with successful results and patients who have kept their limbs after years of rehabilitation.