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Patient Mark Cahill and surgeon Simon Kay.
On December 27, 2012, the first hand transplant was performed in the UK. A decade later, we spoke with the patient and his pioneering surgeon.
“Many patients say that after surgery it is the little things that matter most to them,” says the professor. Simon Kay ObiPlastic surgery consultant.
“To be able to comb your daughter’s hair, get money out of your wallet or turn on the tap and fill a glass of water. Feel good again.”
Or in the case of Mark Cahill, He saves his wife’s life After she had a heart attack.
Leeds University Hospital is home to the UK’s Hand Transplant Unit and the only provider of this type of complex surgery in the country.
He is also now considered one of the world’s leaders in hand transplant services, an area of medicine that would have seemed unbelievable just a few decades ago.
Some of the patients who have walked through the corridors of this hospital over the past decade have lost hands or limbs due to accidents. Others are due to medical conditions such as sepsis or scleroderma.
Cahill case
Mark Cahill is the ideal patient for this medical unit. In 2012, after suffering from gout for years, His right hand became so infected that it required amputation.
The professor and surgeon calls Simon Kay a “teacher”, an expression that reflects the familiarity that has developed between the two over the years.
“My mother had seen Professor Kay on TV saying he was going to do hand transplants,” Cahill recalls.
“I was able to get a consultation with him and he told me I was an ideal candidate. I discussed it with my family and decided to do it: ‘It has to be better than what I have,’ and it really was.”
As Kay takes her patient’s hand and checks out her work, everyone’s attachment and pride becomes evident.
Leeds is the headquarters for the UK Hand Transplant Unit.
Basic facts about hand cultivation
- Very few donors or their families agree to donate with their own hands.
- Hand donation is not an option that can be selected during organ donation registration.
- Finding a compatible organ is more complicated than other organs because both physical appearance and psychological acceptance play a major role in transplant success.
- A one-year patient evaluation is essential and includes a psychological and immunological evaluation.
- Full recovery and use of new implants may take one to three years.
- Hand transplants are not yet available for children, but this is an area that the medical team intends to develop.
Source: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Cahill went under the surgeon’s knife only after extensive psychiatric interviews. “They test your psychological state to see if you are a fit,” he says.
One day after Christmas, the call he and his family had been waiting for finally came.
They said, “Can you come over?” “They explained that I might spend some time in the hospital while they tested me to see if I fit. All sorts of things go through your mind: Will it work, will I love it? You only know these things after the operation…”
For him, the decision to have the transplant was a no-brainer. The surgical team contacted the surgeons in France who performed the first manual transplant in 1998.
“They put me to sleep and I woke up with a new hand,” says Cahill, who had the transplant the next day.
“I remember waking up in the intensive care unit and the teacher came and said, ‘Let’s take a look.
“I could move my fingers a little bit and the teacher said, ‘Don’t do that yet. So I thought, ‘It works now. It’s amazing how fast it moves. “
After months of physical therapy. “It was hard at first,” he recalls. “Your nerves take a long time to regrow and without them your movements and sensations would not be fully there.”
The operation changed her life as it restored her independence.
“I used to ask people to do things for me. Driving, for example, I can drive with my right hand, which makes it much easier,” he says.
It also turned out to be a life saver when, in 2016, his wife, Sylvia, suffered a heart attack. “She died for 19 minutes and for at least 10 of them I kept her alive with heartbeats using my right hand.”
He says he will always be grateful to the team. “They were so great.”
“Life is good now. It’s great.”
image source, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Professor Kay and a team of specialists perform the first double hand transplant in the UK in July 2016.
An exceptional experience
Professor Kai also looks back proudly.
“Within 10 years, we’ve gone from performing what was considered groundbreaking surgery to establishing this service as accessible, well-coordinated, and one of the two best units in the world,” he explains.
“The level of expertise and quality of care from this team is exceptional, of course Our operations would not be possible without the courage and generosity of our donors and their families.
“Your contribution has allowed us to change people’s lives, and working in this field is a privilege.”
However, 10 years after the first surgery, hand donation is still an option that cannot be selected on the donor registry.
“We need donors,” Cahill says. “It’s a very difficult question for nurses to ask people [familiares autorizados]”.
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