Ujjain man undergoes ‘bilateral hand transplant’ at Mumbai hospital; plans to marry now

In a rare case a man from Madhya Pradesh underwent a 12hour long lsquobilateral hand transplantrsquo surgery at the Global Hospitals in Mumbai and is now on his way to regaining nearnormal movements of his upper limbs and look forward to marriage officials said here on MondayThe patient Jeevesh Kushwah 32 sustained a highvoltage electric shock in December 2020 while working at a steel fabrication factory in the pilgrim town of UjjainThe 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 verdictThe medicos said that in order to survive the patientrsquos right leg and both hands would need to be amputated leaving the family devastatedHowever to save Kushwahs life the family agreed and within days his right leg was amputated at above kneelevel and a couple of weeks later both his arms were amputated at below elbow levelSubsequently the distraught family managed to procure artificial limbs for him and he could stand and walk with the artificial legHowever 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 tasksAround a couple of years ago the Kushwahs heard about the Global Hospitals in Parel Mumbai and decided to consult Dr Nilesh Satbhai HoD Plastic Hand Reconstructive Microsurgery amp Transplantation for the first time in June 2022ldquoI examined Jeevesh Kushwah and discussed the feasibility of bilateral hand transplantation with him and his family He and his brother went and returned in January 2024 Kushwah was highly motivated and wanted to go ahead with the transplant surgeryrdquo said SatbhaiAfter a detailed case assessment and planning the hospital registered him for a hand transplant and then the wait began for a suitable donorldquoLuckily for the patient we received hands from a braindead donor in just a month after he got registered The donors hands were perfectly suitable for his body frame in terms of size colour and external appearancerdquo said SatbhaiThe 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 TalaulikarSatbhai 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 contractedAccordingly the recipients preparation was very challenging plus the donors hands had to be dissected and prepared in a different manner so as to match the recipients requirementsThen there was the crucial aspect of coordination of the dead donor and the recipient patients family as the donorrsquos hands had to travel from Surat to Mumbai and the recipient had to rush from Ujjain to MumbaiAfter everything was managed smoothly the patient was wheeled into the operation theater on February 9 and Satbhairsquos team emerged following a successful bilateral hands surgery after 12 hoursKushwah was kept in the ICU where he recovered without any problems He was moved out of his bed after 45 days to start passive physiotherapy and then discharged after three weeks on March 2Satbhai said that Kushwah is expected to regain reasonable hand functions in the next 69 months but will be on lifelong immunosuppression besides taking the required precautions and careAn 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 yearsBut he is now looking forward to regaining all these normal activities besides his independence and dignity with his new pair of transplanted handsEven his brother Manoj Kushwah is very happy and termed it ldquolike Dr Satbhai and his team giving Jeevesh a new lease of liferdquoAnd now he plans to get him married soonTalaulikar said that from 2020 onwards the Global Hospital has completed 10 hand transplants including one unilateral and nine bilateral comprising Indiarsquos 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 absenceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever