Doctors in the United Kingdom have announced a successful “double hand transplant” – the first time such an operation has ever been completed in that country.
The patient, Chris King, 57, lost both hands up to his thumbs in an accident involving a metal pressing machine. King said his two new hands, which he received from a donor, are already functioning.
“I couldn’t wish for anything better,” King said after the successful surgery. “It’s better than winning the lottery because you feel whole again.”
“They’re my hands. They really are my hands. My blood’s going through them. My tendons are attached. They’re mine. They really are.”
First Double Hand Transplant in the UK
The operation was the second successful hand transplant operation in the UK, but the first involving both hands. Doctors who performed the operation said it is the first time a hand transplant operation was done above the wrist, which makes the operation much more complex.
Simon Kay, the surgeon who performed the operation, noted that there are added concerns with a hand transplant, compared to internal organ transplant.
“Nobody cares what their kidney looks like as long as it works,” Kay said, according to BBC News. “But not only do we have to match the hands immunologically, in the same way that we have to match kidneys and livers, they also have to look appropriate because the hands are on view the whole time.”
Kay added that getting donor hands is more difficult because the loved ones of a deceased person are less likely to agree to donate them.
King still has his bandages on, and said he can’t wait to both see and try out his new hands.
“And it’s actually opened a memory because I could never remember what my hands looked like after the accident because that part of my brain shut down,” he said.
King was actually introduced to the surgeon Kay by to Mark Cahill, the first person to have a hand transplant in the UK. Cahill encouraged King to have the transplant operation.
“We’ll shake hands one day,” King said. “It’s wonderful stuff.”
The patient from Doncaster, England added that people should take time to talk to their loved ones about donating whatever organs or body part might potentially help someone else.
“Just have the conversation with your family. There’s no greater gift.”
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Image credit: Leeds General Infirmary
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