Even hands can be transplanted!

A 34-year-old boiler operator Basavanna Gowda, working in a rice mill in Karnataka’s Bellary district, lost both his hands in an electrical accident a decade ago. He has now got a new pair of hands in a very complex but successful hand-transplant surgery at Kochi’s Amrita Hospital that lasted 14 hours.

The transplanted hands belonged to Nevis Sajan Mathew, a 25-year-old deceased youth hailing from Kottayam district in Kerala, who was pursuing Masters in Accounting in France. On a visit to Kerala on a holiday from France, he suffered from an illness and was declared braindead at a hospital in Kochi in September last year. His parents - Sajan Mathew and Sherin – readily agreed to donate their son’s various organs, including his hands, immediately following his death. With this Basavanna’s long wait for a new pair of hands came to an end.

Basavanna suffered a high-tension electrical burn injury in July 2011 at his workplace in Bellary that badly damaged both his hands, turning it lifeless. Following the accident, he was rushed to a hospital in Bellary and later shifted to Bengaluru, where doctors had to amputate both his arms just below the elbow. After suffering for many years, he finally enrolled with the hand-transplantation unit in Bengaluru, praying for a miracle. After a pair of hands was retrieved for transplantation from Nevis Sajan Mathew, the team of surgeons at Amrita Hospital, Bengaluru rushed Basavanna into the marathon surgery.

According to Dr. Mohit Sharma, professor, and Head, Centre for Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Amrita Hospital, “The transplants were done in the upper third of the recipient’s forearms. It was a very complicated surgery because at this level of limb transplantation, only one-third of the natural length of arm muscles, are present in the recipient. We had to bring the rest of the muscles from the limbs of the donor and overlap those over the existing muscles of the recipient’s hands. Even the union of the two bones was complicated as we had to bend the joining plates exactly to the shape of the bones. Most important thing was to reduce the ischemia time, which is the period between the cold perfusion of the donor hands and their warming up later by restoring the blood supply.”

Basavanna and his family, including his wife Anitha and parents, Ramakrishna Reddy and Jayamma, are elated. Basavanna said: “I was devastated after losing both my hands at such a young age. Without my hands, I wouldn’t have been able to do any job. The future looked dark. After receiving new hands, I feel that I have got a new lease of life. I now look forward to leading a normal life..”

Dr. Subramania Iyer, Professor, and Chairman for Center for Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Amrita Hospital, Kochi, who led the team of doctors for surgery along with Dr. Mohit Sharma, “The patient’s surgery was highly successful and he was discharged from the hospital after a few weeks of remaining in the transplantation ICU. He now needs to undergo a daily routine of active and passive physiotherapy. He will also have to take sessions of nerve stimulation to improve the nerve growth and quality of function of the new hands. Thereafter, he will have to undertake muscle strengthening exercises, followed by occupational therapy and the application of various types of functional splints to facilitate his daily activities”.

According to the hospital, this is the ninth successful hand transplant done at Amrita, which has pioneered hand-transplants in India in January 2015. The transplant team at Amrita Hospital comprises Dr. Subramania Iyer, Dr. Mohit Sharma, Dr. Kishore P, Dr.Jimmy Mathew, Dr. Janarthanan R, and Dr. Devajyoti Guin. “Six patients are currently waitlisted for hand transplantation at our hospital”, said Dr. Mohit Sharma.