Richard Edwards, 55, a chiropractor from Oklahoma, U.S.A. underwent a radical double hand transplant on 25th August 2010. He was severely injured in a fire in 2006. He survived and most of his injuries healed, but his hands were badly burned. He said that he couldn't do anything that required a delicate touch like eating food, holding his keys or doing up buttons.

He was so frustrated that he volunteered for a double hand transplant, and the operation was done at the Jewish Hospital Hand Care Centre in Louisville, Kentucky, the site of the world's first successful hand transplant in 1999.

It took two teams of surgeons more than 18 hours of painstaking surgery to first amputate Edwards' damaged hands and then connect the donor's hands.

Edwards' wife and the doctors expressed their gratitude to the family of the deceased donor who through their generosity had made it possible for the hand transplant to be performed.

Nine months later Edwards' was doing well, although he will need to take anti-rejection medicine all his life.