(the stories are ordered by date of the surgery)
Prema Ram Choudhary / March 2023
Prema Ram Choudhary, a 33-year-old man from Kotri village near Ajmer, Rajasthan, lost both of his arms at the age of 18. He was electrocuted while working at a power station in June 2008, resulting in the amputation of both arms from the shoulder. ( more information https://epaper.timesgroup.com/timesspecial/life/the-story-of-prema-ram-who-got-two-full-arms-asia-first-bilateral-transplant/1679028819654 )
Gulnora / 21 Semptember 2022
Gulnora, a 45-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, lost her hands in a workplace accident. She underwent a hand transplant surgery at Amrita Hospital in Kochi, India, and completed a month-long treatment. The limbs used in the transplant were harvested from Anita, a native of Nagercoil, who was declared brain dead at KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on September 21, 2022. The hands were airlifted to Kochi, and the doctors at Amrita Hospital successfully attached them to Gulnora’s arms in a 16-hour surgery. After the successful surgery, Gulnora happily returned to her home country of Uzbekistan.
Felix Gretarsson / 12 January 2021
Felix was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, 1972. He studied to be an electrician with special emphasis on high voltage distribution systems. January 12th, 1998, his life took a sudden turn when he had double arm amputation after a serious accident at work. His life spiraled down into abyss as he lost his health, status, relationship and sense of identity. Next years were challenging as he battled with drug abuse on top of the hopeless situation. In 2001, he decided to turn things around a creation a better life for himself and those around him. With severe liver failure he entered a rehab and the following year he underwent a liver transplant….twice. In 2007, Felix approach the famous, French, transplant doctor Jean-Michel Dubernard, at a hotel in Reykjavík. When Felix approaches him with the idea of transplanting two whole arms from the shoulders down, he was inspired. This turned out to be no small task, but in 2011 the French transplant team decided to go ahead with the operation. Felix launched a nation-wide crowdfunding in order to move to France, pay for the surgery and related cost. The campaign was very successful and people such as Quentin Tarantino and the cast of his film Django Unchained pitched in to make this dream a reality. Summer of 2013 he finally moved to Lyon. ( from homepage of F. Gretarsson, text used with permission of Felix Gretarsson https://gretarsson.is/the-story/)
Laura Nataf / August 2016
The 19-years-old Laura Nataf, a young Frenchwoman who had four limbs amputated in 2007 as a result of sepsis shock. In 2016 received two arm transplants in the PENN Medicine hospital in Philadelphia (United States).
Bernd Schwung/ 28 March 2014
On March 28, 2014, newspapers reported that a German man named Bernd, who had lost both forearms in an accident, had waited for three years for a hand transplant. The surgery finally took place on March 26th, when Bernd flew to Innsbruck to receive his new hands. The surgery was performed by a team of 30 transplant, trauma, and plastic surgeons, as well as anesthesiologists, who worked for 15 hours straight from Wednesday to Thursday. During the surgery, bones, arteries, veins, tendons, and nerves had to be connected to ensure the success of the transplant. The surgery was a major milestone for Bernd, who was now looking forward to starting a new life with his new hands. ( more information )
Grzegorz Galasinski / April 2013
The 33-year-old Grzegorz Galasiński suffered a serious accident, when a paving stone packing machine sucked his face in, on April 23, 2013 . He required immediate surgical intervention. In May, at the Oncology Center – Institute of Maria Skłodowska-Curie in Gliwice, the transplant team of Prof. Adam Maciejewski transplanted his face from a deceased donor. 27 hours of hard work, 14 surgeons working with the highest precision, stitching nerves under microscopes. It was almost a hundred people involved. That was the first such operation in Poland and the first face transplant in the world for life indications – the patient’s injuries were so extensive that his life was in dangerous.
Gabriel Granados / 18 Mai 2012
In May 2012, Gabriel Granados, a 52-year-old father of two, became the first person in Latin America to receive a double arm transplant after suffering severe burns on his arms due to an electrical shock in January 2011. The arms he received belonged to a 34-year-old shooting victim. Granados expressed his excitement at feeling his new hands and called the transplant “terrific”. He works as an agent in the financial unit of Mexico City’s prosecutors’ office. Gabriel was discharged from the hospital in June 2012 after making a full recovery.
Renata Wrzosek/ September 2010
In Trzebnica, her hand and arm were transplanted (10 cm above the elbow).
Mirosław Borodziuk / 2009
Mirosław Borodziuk, a resident of Mysłowice, lost his arm at the age of two. After 28 years, he was able to regain his arm thanks to a hand transplant performed by doctors from Trzebnica. The surgery was a significant achievement for the medical team, and it gave Mirosław a new lease on life.
Karl Merk/ 25 July 2009
Karl Merk, 48 years old, lost his arms just below the shoulder in a 2002 combine harvester accident. 25 July 2008 he underwent a 15-hour surgery at the Munich University Clinic by a team of 40 doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists. His doctors originally expected it would take up to two years before the nerves in his arm would regrow sufficiently to permit movement. Mr. Merk has made more progress than expected through an intensive program of physiotherapy. “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. (the full version is here)
Chris Pollock / 5 February 2009
Pennsylvania native (US), Chris Pollock, lost both hands in a farming accident on November 28, 2008, while fixing a machine during corn harvesting. After being airlifted to Hershey Medical Center, he underwent a groundbreaking double hand transplant surgery and rigorous therapy, eventually regaining 90 percent function in his arms and hands, becoming a pioneer in the field.
(Chris tells his story. Video. Episode transcript)
Vasyly Rohovyy/ 28 May 2006
Vasyly lost both hands and the left eye in an explosion on February 2000 in Ukraine. The right eye was heavily injured too. In an exhaustive search of a hospital that can help Vasyly , in February 2005, five years after the accident, the family received a message from the University Clinic of Innsbruck, Austria that they could help him. On 28 May 2006 two donor’s hands were transplanted to Vasyly Rohovyy. He waited 63 months for this miraculous surgery. (the full story is here ).
Leszek Opoka / 1 April 2006
Leszek Opoka is the first hand transplant patient in Poland. He was 21 years old, when he lost half arm in an accident with carpenter machine. Leszek waited on new hand many years. But everything comes to those who can wait! On 1 April 2006 he got a call from Trzebnica Hospitall. Since then started his new life ! ( the full version is here)
Franz Jamnig / 19 Februar 2001
Mr. Jamnig, from Austria’s southern Carinthia province, lost his forearms in a work accident at the end of the year 1998. Speaking from his hospital beds, he said: ” The operation had been a success! It feels as if these are my own hands. I’m not asking myself whether these are somebody else’s hands I just hope that they will work.”
Theo Kelz / 7 March 2000
The 45-year-old man, who lost both his hands in a right-wing terrorist attack, should be able to start work again soon. Doctors believe that he should be able to use his new hands perfectly.
Mr. Kelz´s hands were blown off by a pipe bomb when it exploded at Klagenfurt airport in 1994. He managed with prosthetic hands for years and even went back to work. But earlier this year he was the subject of a 17-hour operation to transplant two hands onto his arms – only the second such operation ever attempted.
Handtransplant Candidates
Alexey Nevinskii
handtransplant candidate. Alexey was injured in an boat propeller accident on April 23rd, 2022 in Egypt . The propeller of the boat cut all his blood vessels and nerve channels in two places on his left arm. In addition to the lost arm, the boat broke three ribs, damaged him lung and caused 9 deep cuts on his left leg with a propeller. The arm had to be amputated. (the full version is here)
Carlos Rocha
handtransplant candidate. He survived high voltage electric shock incident ( 1200 Volt) and lost his hands. It´s happened on May 1st, 2003. ( the full version is here)
