Asia’s first upper arm double hand transplant was conducted at the Amrita Institute of Medical Science (AIMS) on Shreya Siddanagowda Shreya: Photo: Amrita FBKochi: Shreya Siddanagowda cannot hide her happiness as she looks at her new pair of hands.
The hands of a Keralite student was transplanted on to the Pune native during a surgery at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi. Shreya’s hands from above the elbows to the palms were successfully transplanted in an intricate surgery led by Dr Subramania Iyer, the head of the plastic and reconstructive surgery. The donor was Sachin, a 20-year-old BCom student of Rajagiri College in Kochi, who had died in an accident.
The hospital authorities confirmed that this was Asia’s first 'upper arm double transplantation' surgery. The doctors said that such a complex transplantation had been done previously only in countries such as A
merica, Germany, Poland and Mexico; while it was for the first time that a man’s hands were transplanted to a woman.
Shreya, who is a first year chemical engineering student at Manipal Institute, is the daughter of Suma Nuggihalli and Fakirgowda Siddnagowder. Shreya’s hands were crushed in an unfortunate bus accident while she was on her way to college. Doctors had to then medically amputate her hands from below the elbows.
The transplantation at the hospital lasted 14 hours where a group of 20 surgeons, 16 anesthetists and other medical staff performed the complex surgery. Though Shreya has left hospital, she and her family are staying back in Kochi to continue the physiotherapy.
Shreya's eyes sparkled with hope as she slowly moved her hands and wishes to get back to her college and her friends. The doctors said that she will be able to move her elbows in a few weeks' time; and she could gain full motor skills and sensitiveness in one-and-a-half years when the nerves grow completely.
The skin tone of the transplanted hands are slightly different from Shreya's and a bit big as they had belonged to a man. But they would soon be completely Shreya's as she plans to grab all her dreams with both her hands.
Read more: Latest Kerala news | No relief for Dileep as remand extended till October 12
