Seven years ago, Jeff Kepner underwent the first double hand transplant in the US. It was a risky but exciting surgical feat that offered the possibility of getting the patient most of his normal life back—the life that was taken away in 1999 when sepsis from a strep throat infection led to the amputation of both hands.

But the excitement and possibilities gave way to a grim existence, worse than when he was simply managing with prosthetics, Kepner said.

“From day one I have never been able to use my hands,” he told Time. “I can do absolutely nothing. I sit in my chair all day and wear my TV out.” With the prosthetics, he said, he had about 75 percent functionality. With the transplants, that went down to zero percent.

At this point, those results aren’t the norm, according to WP Andrew Lee, the surgeon who led the transplant back in 2009. Lee and his team have since performed similar procedures on three other patients, all of whom were able to carry on with completely independent lives, working, going to school, and even driving. And of the 100 similar procedures that have taken place in the US and Europe, only six patients had their transplants removed.

Lee is now working with other surgeons to gear up to perform penis transplants on wounded veterans.

Unfortunately for Kepner, removal of his lifeless hands may not be in the cards. The procedure would require additional risky operations that may leave him still unable to use prosthetics. And partially removing the transplanted hands wouldn’t spare him from the regimen of drugs needed to keep his body from attacking the foreign body parts. Kepner said he’s tired of procedures and will likely not try to have the limbs removed.

In retrospect, Kepner said he wouldn’t have gone through with the surgery. But he doesn’t blame Lee or the other surgeons for the outcome of their first transplant. “That’s the chance you take,” he says, “and that’s the chance I took.”