• Lindsay Ess, 29, received double hand transplant last year
• Doctors amputated the Texas woman's hands and feet five years ago after she suffered a major sepsis infection following intestinal surgery because of Crohn’s disease
• Ess is doing well after the cutting-edge surgery that took two teams of doctors 12 hours to complete

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 11:06 EST, 4 January 2013 | UPDATED: 13:59 EST, 4 January 2013

Shaking hands when meeting someone new or giving a high five to a friend are things most people take for granted.

But for 29-year-old double hand transplant patient, Lindsay Ess, being able to do these simple acts means the world.

The Texas fashion graduate lost both hands and feet five years ago, when a blockage in her small intestine resulting from Crohn's Disease led to an infection that turned her extremities into dead tissue.

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Happy hands: Texas fashion graduate Lindsay Ess, pictured, lost her hands and her feet five years ago but after has a new lease on life after a double hand transplant

'I would look down and I would see black, almost like a body that had decomposed,' she told ABC's Nightline in a program due to air tonight.

She knew things were bad, but hadn't processed quite how bad.

'There was a period of time where they didn't tell me that they had to amputate, but somebody from the staff said, "Oh honey, you know what they are going to do to your hands, right?" That's when I knew,' she said.

Without her hands and feet, Ess had to adapt. She learned how to brush her teeth, do her make up and drink from a cup using just her arms, which were amputated just below the elbow. She even taught herself how to text on her cellphone without fingers.

Ess got fitted with prosthetic legs and accepted that getting new feet was probably an unrealistic goal.

But living the rest of her life without hands wasn't an option, particularly as she complained that her prosthetic arms were too heavy, having been designed for men.

'I've accepted the fact that my feet are gone, that's acceptable to me,' she said. 'My hands (are) not. It's still not. In my dreams I always have my hands.'

Donor: Nearly 18 months ago, Ess, pictured in hospital, got the call that a donor had been found that would give her hands and forearms again

Adjusting: The skin color of her new hands and arms isn't exactly the same as her upper arms and the fact they still looked like they belonged to someone else was hard for Ess, pictured, to accept at first

For the next couple of years, Ess exercised diligently - something she needed to do to qualify for a hand transplant.

She also had to wait for a donor, preferably a woman who had similar sized hands and skin color to her. The waiting was the hardest part, she told ABC.

'I hate thinking about that,' she said. 'I think that whoever's hands will be with purpose, not just used to look pretty.'

The surgery took nearly 12 hours, as two separate teams of doctors, one dedicated to the left hand, the other to the right, worked to perform an operation that surgeons have only attempted about 60 times in the past 15 years.

Ess woke from the surgery in a cocoon of bandages.

Levin told ABC that the initial signs that the donor's hands would take were good.

'This is more than we could ever hope for,' he said. 'Her blood pressure is good, all the parameters related to how to blood flow in and out of her new arms. This is, if you will, a picture perfect course so far.'

Before: Ess, pictured, suffered a major sepsis infection following intestinal surgery because of Crohn's disease, which required doctors to amputate her arms below the elbows and her legs below her knees

No hands: Without her hands, Ess had to adapt, learning how to drink from a cup, brush her teeth and apply makeup, pictured, with her arms

Ess was out of the ICU and working on a therapy regime less than a month after surgery.

The skin color of her new hands and arms wasn't exactly the same as her upper arms and the fact they still looked like they belonged to someone else was hard for Ess to accept.

'The first couple of days I refused to look at them,' she said. 'It was kind of like one of those scary movie moments. I'm too scared to look because it's reality (but) I'm so grateful to have them that I just don't really think about it superficially.'

Four months after her surgery, in January 2012, Ess continued to amaze doctors with her recovery.

She wasn't expected to have fine motion control for another year or 18 months, but her muscles were reacting well and she could even pick up small objects with her new hands.

Even so, there was still a huge concern the transplant wouldn't take.

Surgery: The cutting-edge surgery, pictured, took two teams of doctors 12 hours to complete

'In Lindsay's case, the hookup of the new hand is relying on her nerves growing into the new muscles from the donor,' Levin told Nightline.

'The nerves have to grow into those muscles, takes months, it can take a year... Failure means the part that doesn't survive and we have to re-amputate the transplant. That's failure.'

But Levin doesn't think that will happen for Ess. He says her prognosis for both hands couldn't be better.

Ess, who was always one of the pretty girls, says the whole experience has taught her a lesson about what's important in life.

'People used to turn and look at me when I walked down the street because of how beautiful I was,' she told ABC. 'Now they turn and look at me because I'm in a wheelchair.

'The type of person that I was would be the type of person I would hate now. 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?'

She added to WTVR.com: 'I can sense the donor. I have a great sense of appreciation.'

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