Karl Merk is the recipient of the world’s first complete double arm transplant. He spent long six years without arms, after losing his arms just below the shoulder in a 2002 combine harvester accident.
In 25 July 2008 he underwent a 15-hour surgery at the Rechts der Isar Hospital by a team of 40 doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists.
“These are my arms, and I’m not giving them away again,” Merk said at a press conference at the Munich TUM School of Medicine where the surgery was performed.
He said when he first woke up he could not believe it had been successful: “It was really overwhelming when I saw that I had arms again.”
After the year of strong therapy Merk said: “It’s getting a little better every day. It is impossible to describe this to someone who has never experienced having to live without arms for six years without being able to do anything. And now all of a sudden it works again – indescribable.”
“My biggest dream is just that my fingers will keep improving, that I can pick things up and just be self-reliant again,” he told reporters.
“I would have this operation again in an instant,” Merk said.
(according BBC and Dailytelegraph )
German Press about Mr. Merk:
https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de
