♪ ♪ i'm not a cornerstone for you ♪ ♪ time will bring you hear it hold on truth not to worry ice

covered rocks ♪ ♪ still move cold dry stone cold dry stone ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: alice in chains. their album "the devil put dinosaurs here." it comes out may 28th. you can see bonus songs from them at jimmykimmellive.com. i want to thank jason bateman, chadwick boseman. i want to poapologize to matt damon, we ran out of time for him. tomorrow night tom cruise, ke$ha and music from paramour.

thank you for joining us, "nightline" is next. good night. >> tonight on "nightline," to hold again, the extremely rare double hand transplant that promised hope to a young woman who lost both hands and both feet. from the darkest moments to the biggest victories we follow her amazing journey over three years in the making. is it a story about defying the odds. a phone call that changed everything. >> what did he say? >> there is a donor ready for you. >> the grueling 12 hour surgery and the gift of a lifetime. the long and emotional road back to be able to perform the simplest task and to be a hero to others who now need her

strength. >> this special edition of

this is a special edition of "nightline," to hold again. >> i'm dan harris. imagine waking up after doctors have removed both of your hands and both of your feet. imagine realizing you can't brush your teeth or go out on a date or start a family or dress a child. a few years ago, lindsay ess lived through this exact nightmare. she held on to the dream of being able to touch again and what happened next was extraordinary. "nightline" producers and abc's john donovan spent three years following lindsay 's journey. >> reporter: is it the simplest thing, the grasp of one hand inside another. but lindsay ess will never see it that way, for her hands, these once belonged to someone

else. her story and these hand stories are one and the same now. but listen to how that came to be. growing up, lindsay was one of the pretty girls. she went to college. she did some modelling and got to work building a career in fashion. and then, she lost her hands. and her feet. >> hold it right there, please. >> reporter: we met lindsay in december of 2009. >> hello. >> reporter: in one of her first meetings with this man, dr. scott levin a transplant specialist who wants to try to give lindsay new hands, real ones from a donor. >> can i got behind my -- >> hopefully you could do your hair. >> reporter: when lindsay was 24 she had her eyes on a career producing fashion shows and just

graduated from virginia commonwealth university's fashion program. >> you were on your way? >> yes. i would say that was my dreams as far as being an excellent student and well respected were definitely coming true. >> reporter: but then she got sick, a blockage in her small intestine. surgery followed and something went wrong, an infection that shut down her entire body. doctors had to put her in a medical induced coma. when she came out of it in a haze a month later. >> i knew there was something wrong with my hands and my feet. i would look down and i would see black, almost like a body that had decomposed. >> reporter: the infection turned her extremities into dead tissue. >> there was a period of time they didn't tell me they had to

amputate but someone from the staff said you know what they're going to do to your hands right? that's when i knew. >> reporter: april, 2010. >> should i call randy, then? >> reporter: the remarkable thing was seeing lindsay at home in virginia and the things she learned to do without her hands, like this. and this. and guess what, this. >> the most common questions i get are how do you type and text so fast? and just like chicken pecking. >> reporter: but the truth is overnight she became profoundly disabled. >> you don't have your hands now. >> or my feet. >> own your feet. >> what are the challenges? >> the lack of control. >> getting her prosthetic legs on requires help from her mom,

judith who moved back and cared for her like 20 years earlier. lindsay discovered a lot of things about herself that she hates needing so much help. >> i can't wait to brush my own hair. >> i'm an independent person but i'm grateful i have a mother like that. i mean, what would i do? >> i want her to be able to, you know, touch me, just the way i touch her. >> reporter: she learned that while she could adjust to the legs, the prosthetic arms were too heavy. >> i can't do anything with them. i can't do anything behind your head. they are heavy and made for men. they are claws. they are not feminine. >> reporter: and she realized so much of our independence and our identity is in our hands. >> i accepted the fact that my feet are gone. that is acceptable to me. my hands is not. it's still not -- in my dreams i

always have my hands. i wanted to try to get this other knee up. >> reporter: december 2010, over the past year, lindsay was working out diligently, part of the commitment to qualify for a transplant is she stays in shape. >> have you fallen? >> yes. >> you want to go like that. what do you do? >> i do the same thing but i cover my face and just fall on my elbows. >> which must hurt your elbows. >> it hurts. >> reporter: she is tough. but back in her apartment she talks about her body again and what she sees in a different way. >> people used to turn and look because of how beautiful i was and now they turn and look at me because i'm in a wheelchair and i have no hands and feet. the type of person i was would be the type of person i would hate. i used to care way too much

about what i looked like. what does it matter what my hair looks like? what does it matter what i'm wearing so much? >> reporter: but hands, they matter not just as much as before, more. >> i try to defy what everybody else says is impossible. they said i wasn't going to live. they said i wouldn't going to walk. they said i wouldn't have my hands. >> reporter: four months later, april, 2011 i pay a visit on dr. scott levin who talked about how complex a surgery lindsay signed on for. >> the hook up of the new hand is relying on her nerves growing into the new muscles from the donor. the nerves have to grow into those muscles which takes months. could take a year. >> she may or may not get functioning hands back?

>> we tell patients we can fail you. >> what is failure? >> the part doesn't survive and we have to amputate the transplant. >> the preferred donor would be female with hands of the right size a skin color that matches and part of the wait is for those body parts to become available. that is of everything the part that lindsay found the most difficult about this unnamed donor that everyone was waiting for. >> i hate thinking about that. >> why? >> because i just don't -- yeah, someone out there right now is alive. >> you hate thinking about it because it means that person would have to die? >> yeah. i think that whomever the hands will be, will be carried out with purpose. they're not just going to be used for to look pretty. >> reporter: september 2011.

>> my spirits are pretty good. waiting for this for a long time. >> reporter: after four years without hands or feet, it has happened someone somewhere has died and her hands are being delivered to dr. levin who has phoned lindsay telling her to get to philadelphia immediately. they have only hours to get this done. >> the phone rang, what did he say? >> there is a donor ready for you. and i think my mom and i both jaws dropped. >> reporter: there was a lot of prepping to do in a hurry. but lindsay and her mother paused for a moment. >> the first thing that we did was we prayed for the family who lost their young daughter. >> reporter: and then it begins. >> bye. >> love you. >> reporter: for the next 11 1/2 hours the surgery proceeds. >> separate skin at this point in time. >> reporter: two teams one

dedicated to the left hand and one work on the right. an operation so cutting edge, surgeries have only attempted it 70 or so times in the past 15 years. when we come back, the long struggle to relearn what hands can do. [ stewart ] this is the kind of food i love to cook. i'm very excited about making the shrimp and lobster pot pie. we've never cooked anything like this before. [ male announcer ] introducing red lobster's seaside mix & match. combine any 2 of 7 exciting choices on one plate for just $12.99! like new cheddar bay shrimp & lobster pot pie, and new parmesan crunch shrimp. plus salad and unlimited cheddar bay biscuits. combine any 2 for just $12.99. [ stewart ] for the seaside mix & match, we're really mixing it up. there's just so many combinations to try. i'm stewart harrington, red lobster line cook, and i sea food differently. ♪

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we return now to one young woman and her incredible journey having just received a double hand transplant she faces difficult and new challenges now

and so once again here's abc's john donovan. >> reporter: after nearly 12 hours in the operating room, something quite rare, transplanting two donor hands on to 28-year-old lindsay ess. >> have you looked yet? no. okay. >> i have only peeked down at one thumb. >> reporter: inside this cocoon is a new lindsay. the initial signs, good. >> this is more than we could hope for. her blood pressure is good. how the blood flow is in and out of her new arms. it's picture perfect so far. >> october 2011, less than a month after surgery lindsay is out of the icu and well into therapy.

>> it's easier as i'm going are you helping me? >> you're doing well. >> each repetition should be easier. >> how many is this one? >> this is number two. >> reporter: she has started to get her new hands. >> tell me about when you first saw them? >> actually the first couple days i refused to look at them. >> how come? >> it is like a scary movie kind of moment. that's how it was. i'm too scared to look. >> reporter: but it's not yet a perfect reality. to prevent rejection the surgeries had to leave fat and skin on her toned and thin arms. her hands and arms look like they belong to someone else. >> the skin color is never going to be the same. the lower arms to upper arms. what will always be that way? >> it's hard to answer questions

like that. i'm grateful to have them. for them to not match is to me -- >> beside the point? >> yeah. >> start with your left wrist. >> january 2012, her doctors are amazed by the pace of her recovery. they didn't expect fine motion control for at least 12 to 18 months. >> but to see at this early stage is encouraging. >> her muscles are reacts and she can pick up lightweight objects. >> this is where time hours each day for the next year. hours. >> all right. >> there she goes. >> and finally going home on a cold day last february, five months after that call to come in for the surgery. the prognosis, for both hands couldn't be better. >> oh, my god, look at your extension. that's incredible. >> straighten these out and

squeeze. >> reporter: june, 2012, nine months after the surgery she can extend and move her wrist and fingers and sense hot and cold, it indicates that nerves are growing back. >> her function continues to improve dramatically at an accelerated rate. it is giving her more strength. >> but you can see the weight gain, 40 pounds. the result of steroids required when her body threatened to reject the transplant. the crisis receded but the weight gain is something that lindsay finds discouraging. >> i hear you on the steroids. we want you off the steroids as fast as we can get you off them but it's to compromise and risk rejection is the thing we have been balancing. >> when we come back, new hands getting the hold of a new life. .

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after a loss that most of us could never imagine and a rare surgery that opened the door to hope we return now to the story of a young woman who makes the brave turn from helping herself to helping others. once more here's abc john donovan. >> reporter: hour after hour, day after day, the therapy continues. the dark pigment in her new hands is fading away. excess skin and fat has been removed. >> you are on schedule? >> ahead of schedule. >> what does that mean? >> i have more muscle in my

hands and my fingers than other people have -- have had at 14 months. >> reporter: so when we went down to richmond to catch up it was the end of our story. >> these are your hands now? they feel like your hands to you? >> i feel like they're a gift. and they're always going to be a gift. i mean, you can say that they're mine. but i mean, they are mine. but they're still a gift. >> reporter: one small sign of success her intrinsic muscles working. they allow her to contract and relax her muscle. >> if you feel right here it's hard. it's a muscle.

and i can use these two and at the same time these -- so it creates a -- see this? this is a muscle and this is a muscle which is intrinsic. >> what can you do with your hands now? >> now i can brush my teeth and it's easy. i can't do a doorknob quite yet. i can pick up stuff from the ground. >> and one other thing. remember that small thing that lindsay said three years ago that she aspired to do for herself? >> i can't wait to brush my own hair. >> here is it. >> i can brush my hair. >> a mall thing and a big thing in one stroke. for night line i'm john donovan in richmond, virginia. >> therapy still takes up the most of her time but she is intent on getting a masters in rehab counseling. she now wants to help