Hand Transplant Recipient Continuing To Improve

• {Kentucky}...Doctors reported Thursday that Donnie Rickelman, 36, of Linton, Indiana, who received a new left hand in July during a 14 ½-hour procedure at Jewish Hospital is continuing to improve and showing better-than-expected range of motion. Rickelman’s doctors say they’ve seen motion in his fingers, wrist and forearm. Through physical therapy, he is now able to hold playing cards, turn nuts and bolts and grasp small objects between his thumb and index finger. Doctors say that signals the return of fine motor skills. The transplant, performed by Dr. Joseph Kutz of Kleinert Kutz & Associates, is the Louisville team’s seventh patient to receive a hand transplant.