By Sheila AshDoctors at Louisville’s Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center provided an update Monday on the progress being made by double hand transplant recipient Rich Edwards. "It may have been the donated hand had either an injured or an abnormal blood supply. Or it could have been Mr. Edwards own forearms that were scarred and burned badly enough that they didn’t help give a good environment for one of the arteries,"Breidenbach says Edwards (in photo from September 2) is doing fine. Doctors will monitor the right hand for another two weeks and keep it immobile so blood flow won’t be disrupted. Meanwhile, Edwards’ left hand is progressing well and will continue to receive therapy as scheduled.Edwards lost the use of both his hands in a truck fire four years ago. He received his donor hands in late August.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.