An attic whose hands have been left unused by an autoimmune disease said he was delighted after NHS surgeons successfully performed the world’s first double arm transplant for the condition.
Stephen Gallagher was forced to stop working after scleroderma, a condition that left scars on his skin and internal organs, caused his hands to close in a fist. After he first developed an unusual rash about 13 years ago, the condition affected his nose and mouth, his fingers began to twist, and he experienced “terrifying” pain.
But after undergoing a 12-hour operation at Leeds Training Hospital, the NHS’s confidence – for the first time anywhere in the world – that a hand transplant has been used to replace arms severely affected by scleroderma – he can turn on the tap and fill a glass of water for the first time in years. Gallagher, 48, is now hoping to return to work.
Stephen Gallagher with his dog Skye. Photo: Jane Barlow / PA
“I woke up after the operation and it was pretty surreal because I had my hands before, and then when I woke up from the operation I still had my hands, so I never lost any hands in my head,” he said. “These hands are amazing, everything happened so fast. From the moment I woke up from the operation, I was able to move them. “
Gallagher spent about four weeks in a general hospital in Leeds after the operation in December 2021 and regularly visits hospitals in Glasgow for physiotherapy and monitoring. His condition is improving more than five months after the operation, and although he cannot perform tasks that require great dexterity, such as pushing buttons, the father of three can do things like petting his family’s dog.
“It gave me new life,” he said. “At the moment I still find things difficult, but things are getting better every week with physiotherapists and occupational therapists, everything is just slowly improving. Pain is the big thing. The pain before the operation was terrible, I was so relieved that it was amazing, but now I don’t have any pain. “
When experts first proposed the idea of a double arm transplant, Gallagher of Dreghorn in North Ayrshire initially rejected the idea. But later he decided to continue despite the risks – and is grateful to the person and family of the donor who made the transplant possible.
“My hands started to close, I got to the point where there were actually two fists, my hands were unusable, there was nothing I could do but lift things with both hands,” he recalls. “I couldn’t grab anything, it was hard to get dressed and things like that.
“When Prof. Hart from Glasgow mentioned a double hand transplant, I laughed and thought it was something from the space age.” My wife and I talked about it and agreed to do it. I could have lost my hands anyway, so it was just a case of telling them I would agree.
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Professor Simon Kay of Leeds Training Hospitals, trusted by the NHS, said the operation was a “huge team effort” involving about 30 health professionals.
“Hand transplants are very different from kidney or other organ transplants because hands are something we see every day and we use them in so many ways,” Kay said. “For this reason, we and our expert clinical psychologists evaluate and prepare patients to ensure that they will be able to cope psychologically with the constant reminder of their transplant and the risk that the body may reject the transplanted arms.
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