Kochi:Organ shortage hits hand transplant

Kochi: The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) here, which conducted the first hand transplant in the country in 2015, has now seven persons waiting to undergo the same process. This heavy backlog is due to the serious dip in organ donation post a controversy and litigation and the resultant new rules introduced nearly two years ago.

Two of the persons in waiting are from Afghanistan who belong to the Afghan army and who lost their hands in explosions. They came here after seeing the recovery of another Afghan army man Abdul Rahim, who underwent the second hand transplant at the hospital under the guidance of transplant surgeon Dr Subramania Iyer, who has done all the hand transplants at the hospital.

Two others registered for transplants are from Hyderabad and one each from Karnataka, Malay-sia and Yemen.

Amrita Hospital has so far conducted five hand transplants. Thodupuzha native T.R. Manu, who underwent the first hand transplant, has achieved 98 percent recovery. He got married and is the father of a child. He is working as transplant counselling assistant at AIMS to encourage more people to make organ donations. The relatives of Varapuzha native glass artist Binoy came forward to open a new path in hand donation which was a hoary prospect for many till then.

Afghan Abdul Rahim has gone back to rejoin his army. The first two transplants were bilateral while the third one on a Kannur native was bilateral mid forearm and the fourth and fifth on Pune and Chennai natives respectively were bilateral upper arm transplants. If the first year (2015) witnessed two transplants, the subsequent years saw one each and the last one on Linga Selvi from Chennai took place on April 4 this year.

Jithu from Kannur is working as security staff at AIMS while Shreya from Pune has rejoined studies. Linga Selvi is undergoing post-operative physiotherapy.

“In the latest instance, the relatives of two deceased, who agreed to donate their other organs, refused it in case of hands. Ours is a state which a few years ago witnessed 50 organ donations a year itself and even beat TN on the count,” said Dr Subramania Iyer.

“It is unfortunate that certain films give a negative impression about organ donation. In fact, the quality of life that Manu, Abdul and others get after transplantation should inspire others. Manu lost his hand when he was thrown off a moving train by a bunch of hooligans when he attempted to save a woman from their hands. These transplants and the gesture of donor families are awe-inspiring,” said Dr Subramania Iyer.