Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Amrita Hospital) has conducted India’s – and Asia’s – first upper-arm double hand-transplant on Shreya Siddanagowda, a 19-year-old Chemical Engineering student of Manipal Institute of Technology, who lost both her hands in a road mishap last year. 

The donor was 20-year-old Sachin, a B Com final year student of Ernakulam’s Rajagiri College, who was declared brain-dead after suffering fatal head injury in a motorcycle accident. His parents readily agreed to donate his hands and other organs for transplant. Shreya is the only daughter of Suma Nuggihalli and Fakirgowda Siddnagowder, a senior manager at Tata Motors, Pune. In September 2016, while returning by road from Pune to her college near Mangalore, the bus she was travelling in overturned, crushing her hands. She was rushed to a hospital, where both her arms had to be amputated at the elbow. Talking to media at the hospital along with the patient, Amrita Hospital Plastic and reconstructive surgery HOD Sr Subramaniya Iyer said that a team of 20 surgeons and 16-member anesthetic team took over 13 hours for the upper arm double hand transplant. 

“Upper arm transplants are much 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. Rehabilitation is also much 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. This is the first time that an upper arm transplant has been done in India or even Asia. Only nine such transplants have been conducted in the world till now,’’ he added. Talking to media Shreya said ‘’my whole world collapsed and I couldn’t believe what had happened.

However, I recovered emotionally in a few weeks because of the loving support of my family and close friends, even though momentary lapses into depression continued. When I was told by my mother that hand transplants were now being conducted in India, I got great strength and hope, and my disability began to look temporary. I felt that one day, I will again be able to lead a near-normal life with a transplant,” she said