Patient Stories

Patient Stories

Hand transplant featured on ABC 20/20

UCLA patient Jonathan Koch and his surgeon, Dr. Kodi Azari, who performed a rare 18-hour hand transplant to help Jonathan regain a normal life, featured in a special 20/20 episode.

• Part 1: Hollywood mogul falls ill, close to death in less than 24 hours
• Part 2: Doctors struggle to diganose man's mysteries illness
• Part 3: Man prepares for remarkable hand transplant surgery
• Part 4: Man has successful hand transplant after almost 18-hour surgery
• Part 5: Hand transplnat recipient, doctor get surprised by Captain Sully

Hand Transplant Patient feature as a Laker for a Day

Jonathan Koch stood on the hardwood floor at Staples Center, swishing shots at the same basket where Laker legends have delivered many awe-inspiring performances.

For Jonathan, an entertainment executive who received a hand transplant at UCLA six months earlier, this was a made-for-TV moment even he couldn't script.

Just two years earlier, a sudden illness led to the destruction of tissue in Jonathan's feet and hands, threatening to take his limbs – and his life.

"I got a text that basically said, 'Call me. Very serious,'" recalls his wife, Jennifer. "I was told that he had a 90 percent chance of dying. He had multiple organ failures, and from that loss of oxygen going to his hands and feet, which in essence made his hands and feet die." Read more

The Hollywood Exec and the Hand Transplant That Changed His Life

In just 30 hours, a super-fit reality TV producer went from the top of his game to the precipice of death. What happened next would teach him everything about grace, resolve, and the power of love. Read more in Los Angeles Magazine