In a rare case, a man from Madhya Pradesh underwent a 12-hour long ‘bilateral hand transplant’ surgery at the Gleneagles Hospital in Mumbai and is now on his way to regaining near-normal movements of his upper limbs, and look forward to marriage, officials said here on Monday.
The patient, Jeevesh Kushwah (32), sustained a high-voltage electric shock in December 2020 while working at a steel fabrication factory in the pilgrim town of Ujjain.
The bachelor suffered severe electric burns on both his arms and legs and was initially treated at an Ujjain hospital and later in Indore, where the family was given a grim medical verdict.
The medicos said that in order to survive, the patient’s right leg and both hands would need to be amputated, leaving the family devastated.
However, to save Kushwah's life, the family agreed and within days, his right leg was amputated at above knee-level, and a couple of weeks later, both his arms were amputated at below elbow-level.
Subsequently, the distraught family managed to procure artificial limbs for him and he could stand and walk with the artificial leg.
However, the artificial hands were of little or no use as they were not fully functional, and he remained dependent on his family members or brothers to carry out his routine daily tasks.
Around a couple of years ago, the Kushwahs heard about the Gleneagles Hospital in Parel, Mumbai, and decided to consult Dr. Nilesh Satbhai, HOD, Plastic, Hand, Reconstructive Microsurgery & Transplantation, for the first time in June 2022.
“I examined Jeevesh Kushwah and discussed the feasibility of a bilateral hand transplantation with him and his family. He and his brother went and returned again in January 2024. Kushwah was highly-motivated and wanted to go ahead with the transplant surgery,” said Satbhai.
After a detailed case assessment and planning, the hospital registered him for a hand transplant and then the wait began for a suitable donor.
“Luckily for the patient, we received hands from a brain-dead donor in just a month after he got registered. The donor's hands were perfectly suitable for his body frame in terms of size, colour, and external appearance,” said Satbhai.
The case had multiple unique challenges, but the hospital and its medical team managed to accomplish the bilateral hand transplant without any glitches, said IHH Healthcare India COO, Dr. Vivek Talaulikar.
Satbhai explained that the primary injury sustained by Kushwah had resulted in very severe scarring of both the amputation stumps, there were skin grafts over both the amputation stumps and the underlying structures were also defaced and contracted.
Accordingly, the recipient's preparation was very challenging, plus the donor's hands had to be dissected and prepared in a different manner so as to match the recipient's requirements.
Then there was the crucial aspect of coordination of the (dead) donor and the recipient patient's family, as the donor’s hands had to travel from Surat to Mumbai, and the recipient had to rush from Ujjain to Mumbai.
After everything was managed smoothly, the patient was wheeled into the operation theater on February 9, and Satbhai’s team emerged following a successful bilateral hands surgery after 12 hours.
Kushwah was kept in the ICU where he recovered without any problems. He was moved out of his bed after 4-5 days to start passive physiotherapy and then discharged after three weeks on March 2.
Satbhai said that Kushwah is expected to regain reasonable hand functions in the next 6-9 months, but will be on lifelong immunosuppression besides taking the required precautions and care.
An elated Kushwah explained his frustrations, depression and sheer helplessness for even simple acts like holding things, wearing clothes, eating, bathing, toilet, etc. of the past five years.
But he is now looking forward to regaining all these normal activities, besides his independence and dignity with his new pair transplanted hands.
Even his brother Manoj Kushwah is very happy and termed it “like Dr. Satbhai and his team giving Jeevesh a new lease of life”.
And now they plan to get him married soon…!
Talaulikar said that from 2020 onwards, the Gleneagles Hospital has completed 10 hand transplants, including one unilateral and nine bilateral, comprising India’s first bilateral hand transplants on a quadruple amputee, plus three firsts in Asia - a partial hand transplant, a bilateral total arm transplant, and a transplant for congenital absence.