A 19-year-old chemical engineering student, who had lost both her hands in a road mishap last year, got a fresh lease of life after Asia’s first upper-arm double hand-transplant was performed on her. The landmark surgery was conducted at the Amrita Institute of Medical Science (AIMS) by a group of 20 surgeons and a 16-member anaesthetic team and lasted for 13 hours.
In September last year, when Shreya Siddanagowda was travelling from Pune to her college (Manipal Institute of Technology) near Mangaluru, her bus met with a major accident. Though she crawled out of the overturned bus, she soon realised that she couldn’t move either of her hands. She was rushed to a hospital where both her arms had to be amputated at the elbow.
She was understandably devastated to have lost both her hands at such a young age. Shreya tried using prosthetic arms but it was not very helpful.
A year later her wait for hand donor ended in August after the family of 20-year-old college student Sachin, declared brain-dead after suffering a fatal head injury in a motorcycle accident, agreed to donate his hands and other organs.
“Upper arm transplants are more challenging than those at the wrist or forearm level due to the complexity involved in accurately identifying and connecting various nerves, muscles, tendons and arteries. Only nine such cases have been reported the world. Rehabilitation also is more difficult because the patient bears the weight of the transplanted hands at the upper arm. In Shreya’s case, both transplants were done at the middle of the upper arm,” said Dr Subramania Iyer, head of Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery who led the surgery said.
Expressing her happiness over the surgery, Shreya said “I am just happy that I have hands now. Looks don’t matter. I want to start re-using my hands and be independent as soon as possible,” Shreya says.
However, doctors said, it will take nearly two years for Shreya to fully use her hands as the transplants were done at the middle of the upper arm. “Only eight such cases exist in the world. We are hopeful that Shreya will get at least 70% functionality in her hands,” said Dr Mohit Sharma, who was part of the team.
