UK’s first double hand transplant a success
The first double hand transplant operation in the UK that took place at Leeds General Infirmary was a success.
Chris King, the patient from Doncaster, lost both of his hands, excluding the thumbs, in a workplace accident involving a metal pressing machine three years ago. His two new hands were donated and he says he already has some movement in them.
The 57-year-old patient is the second person to have a hand transplant at Leeds, and the first to have both hands replaced. King is very happy with the success of the operation, saying both of his new hands “look absolutely tremendous”. “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,” he said.
Professor Simon Kay led the operation at the UK’s center for hand transplants.Prof. Kay, a consultant plastic surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary, said it was a unique procedure: “It’s the first time as far as I’m aware that a hand transplant has been done which hasn’t been above the wrist, which has been within the substance of the hand, which makes it much more difficult and more complex.”
And he said there was more to think about when transplanting hands rather than internal organs. He said that apart from matching the hands immunologically, in the same way that they have to match kidneys and livers, they also have to match it physically as the hands are in view the whole time.
After the accident, King was introduced by Prof. Kay to Mark Cahill – the first person to have a hand transplant in the UK, in 2012.
King said Cahill encouraged him to have the operation and they’re now good friends. “We’ll shake hands one day. It’s wonderful stuff.”
The team at Leeds General Infirmary, which specializes in hand transplants, is hoping to perform between two and four operations a year and there are currently four people on the waiting list.
