Bethel Park man rebounds from hand transplant, eager to make progress

Sep 21, 2009 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- AEOS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- He folds shirts and jeans, rings up customers, even helps them pick the right outfit.

Barely six months after getting a hand transplant, Josh Maloney is back to work at American Eagle Outfitters in South Hills Village, where most people don't believe his right hand once belonged to someone else.

"They'll ask me, 'What happened to your hand?' " said Maloney, 25, of Bethel Park. "When I tell them I'm the first hand transplant in Pittsburgh, they don't believe me. If I was going to make up a story, I wouldn't make up something so checkable."

With the help of doctors and hand therapists at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Maloney has made incredible progress since the March 14 surgery in which he received a hand from a West Virginia man who died.

Despite some tightness around his wrist, Maloney can use a pair of scissors, dribble a tennis ball and sense the difference between something cold and something hot. He has stopped taking pain pills.

"I'm ecstatic," said Maloney, a former Marine who lost his hand in a military training accident in January 2007. "I'm doing things I didn't think I would do again. I can hold a water bottle while I'm driving. I can hold a pool cue and play almost as good as I used to. It's very cool."

Maloney no longer uses a sling to rest his hand, and instead wears a cotton sleeve that helps with some minor swelling. When he takes off the sleeve, there's a bulge around his wrist, caused by extra tissue where doctors weaved together his tendons. He prefers to keep the sleeve on, especially in public, afraid his hand will get hurt if he brushes it against something.

"Mentally, it's a crutch," he said about the cotton sleeve.

Maloney continues a grueling therapy regimen five days a week. In the therapy room at UPMC Montefiore, he usually sits across from Jeff Kepner, a Georgia man who received a double hand transplant May 4. Despite the age difference -- Kepner is 57 -- the two spend so much time together they have established a strong rapport and often tease each other, even about the words they use when they're interviewed by reporters.

"It's nice to have someone to commiserate with," Kepner said. "We're the only two who have anything in common."

Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, the chief surgeon overseeing Maloney's care, said the dosage of Maloney's anti-rejection medication has been reduced by half since the surgery. Maloney is enrolled in a clinical trial that aims to reduce the medication, which can cause side effects such as cancers and infections.

Maloney acknowledges he often loses patience. He wants to be able to do more with his hand, in order to get his life back to normal. When he holds an object, he can tell there's something in his hand, but if his eyes are closed, he can't tell what it is. For that to happen, his nerves need to regenerate more, said his therapist, Kim Zeske-Maguire.

"There are moments when I want to cut off my hand, when it's not working at the level I expect," he said. "I try to uphold myself to a higher standard in everything I do. I want to push."

That's just the way he is, said his mother, Patti Maloney.

"He wants everything to happen more quickly," she said. "No matter what he does, it's not fast enough."

Within a month, Maloney is expected to start therapy closer to home. That will eliminate the daily, hourlong trips from Bethel Park to Oakland, which become tedious and exhausting. The intense, five-hour therapy sessions are almost like having a full-time job and cut into his time to work. He complains that a 20-hour work week is too short for a decent paycheck.

"I have a life that I have to get back to," he said.

Maloney longs to hit the gym every day, to gain strength in his upper body. One of his goals is to make a perfect salute -- fingers straight against his forehead -- by the Marine Corps Ball in November.

He dreams of getting back into the Corps.

"In a perfect world, I'd go back to combat, but chances are they're not going to let me," he said. "I'll do whatever they let me do."

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