Patient dies after Turkey quadruple limb transplant

Fifty-two doctors from Ankara's Hacettepe University Hospital performed the transplant on Friday, attaching two arms and two legs to Sevket Cavdar.

But doctors had first removed one leg from the patient after his heart and vascular system failed to sustain the limb and then the other leg and two arms.

The patient, who was in the intensive care unit after the removal of the limb, died at 1720 GMT due to "metabolic imbalance which seriously threatened his life," said the hospital in a statement.

"We are in deep sorrow of losing our patient despite the ceaseless efforts of nearly 200 doctors and health personnel for about 90 hours," it added.

The operation came on the heels of the country's first-ever face transplant at another Turkish university hospital.

Last month, a team of doctors at Akdeniz University in the southern city of Antalya successfully performed the operation on a 19-year-old boy whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby.

(c) 2012 AFP