Britain's First Hand Swap Op: Grandfather 'Ecstatic' After Ground-breaking 8-hour Transplant
Eight days ago Mark Cahill was living with a paralysed right hand.
Yesterday he was able to move his fingers for the first time in five years after becoming the first Briton to receive a hand transplant.
The operation also made history as the world's first when the original hand was removed during the same procedure. In the past, recipients have already lost the hand before the replacement could be found.
Mr Cahill, a 51-year-old grandfather from West Yorkshire, was deprived of the use of the hand when it became infected during a severe attack of gout.
He said he was ecstatic about the operation's success so far, and hoped to be able to return to work as a pub landlord.
'This has changed my life,' he added. 'It feels great to look at this hand and see it move. Before the operation, I couldn't tie my own shoes, do up the buttons on my shirt, cut up my own dinner or play with my grandson's toys with him hopefully I'll be able to do all these things now.'
The eight-hour operation was carried out at Leeds General Infirmary by a team led by consultant plastic surgeon Simon Kay.
Mr Cahill, with 47-year-old wife Sylvia by his side, said: 'I'd like to thank the whole team at the LGI but above all, I would like to thank the donor family. It was a really great thing that they did.'
Professor Kay predicted a year ago that 2012 would see Britain's first hand transplant and it happened on December 27 with just four days to go.
He said: 'This operation is the culmination of a great deal of planning and preparation over the last two years. The team was on two years. The team was on standby from the end of November awaiting a suitable donor limb, and the call came just after Christmas.
Professor Kay has been preparing to carry out a hand transplant for at least ten years, and recently set up a dedicated NHS unit for the procedure.
Although the surgery is similar to re-attaching a hand or arm after it has been severed in an accident, using one from a donor is fraught with problems, he says.
There is the issue of rejection, requiring the recipient to take immunosuppressive drugs for life to prevent the donor organ being rejected.
And the emotional and psychological needs of the recipient need careful and lengthy preparation.
In 1998, New Zealander Clint Hallam received a pioneering hand transplant from a motorcyclist killed in an accident. Two years later he asked for it to be removed, saying it felt like a 'dead man's hand'.
Professor Kay said a year ago that he hoped the team would not make the mistake of picking the 'wrong patient' to receive Britain's first hand transplant.
He said: 'We would be very keen not to scupper the UK programme by having another Clint Hallam.'
Mr Cahill was told three months ago that he would be in line for an operation and he got the call on Boxing Day that a donor hand had become available.
The surgery was carried out the following day. After the non-functioning hand was removed, the bone in his arm was attached to the new hand's bones with titanium plates, before connecting a dozen tendons, eight blood vessels and three large nerves together.
Professor Kay said: 'When looking for a candidate, we have to make sure that the person was of the right age there hasn't been a child hand transplant yet someone who could understand and co-operate with the process.
'We were looking for someone who was medically suitable and someone who was prepared to take immunosuppressants.'
It is estimated the operation cost the NHS around £10,000, not much more than the average kidney transplant. Donors have to be those who are brain dead but whose hearts are still beating.
This is likely to mean they have suffered traumatic injury, such as a road crash, or a fatal stroke at an early age.
Professor Kay said: 'I felt very anxious but I'm incredibly proud of the team everyone from the surgical team to the psychologists who supported Mark.
'We couldn't have done this without a hospital with the expertise the LGI has. And of course we should thank the donor you can't imagine anything more tragic than a family member dying unexpectedly at Christmas.'
Jenny Hope - MailOnline
