Now I can brush my daughters’ hair again!
First British woman to have double hand transplant after losing both to sepsis says:
WHEN Tania Jackson lost her hands and an arm to sepsis she thought she would never again enjoy the simple maternal pleasures of brushing her daughters’ hair or holding their hands.
But all that has changed after she became the first British woman to have a double hand transplant.
Mother-of-three Mrs Jackson, 42, was given a new left arm and two new hands in a 15-hour operation last month at Leeds General Infirmary.
They are still bandaged as her recovery from surgery continues, but Mrs Jackson can’t wait to return to normal and tackle simple everyday tasks at home.
The beauty therapist from Hull said: ‘I have all sort of emotions. It was such a major breakthrough.
‘I can’t wait to get my life back again and be independent. It is just the normal things I am looking forward to most, being able to brush my daughters’ hair and hold their hands. I am so excited for the future.’
Mrs Jackson lost the limbs when a long-term condition she has suffered from since her 20s, ulcerative colitis, worsened in early 2015. Complications from an inflamed colon led to her contracting sepsis.
Recalling her dramatic deterioration, she said her stomach bloated to the point that she looked six months pregnant and she became sick.
A few days later she could barely move and was taken to hospital by husband Andrew, 40. Doctors feared the sepsis that was attacking her body could prove fatal. Mr Jackson said: ‘Her limbs had started to turn black. They told me she had sepsis and I didn’t know whether she was going to live or die.’
She lost three-quarters of her left arm, her left hand, her right hand apart from a small section of thumb, and her toes in the amputation operation which saved her life. The recovery was long and tough, but she was given hope by a TV programme she watched in hospital about Corinne Hutton, the first woman to be placed on the hand transplant register.
Mrs Jackson was referred to the specialist unit at Leeds General Infirmary – the only one in the country – and put on the waiting list in early 2016.
She wore prosthetics until a suitable donor became available and the transplant was carried out by consultant plastic surgeon Professor Simon Kay and his team.
Mrs Jackson can now move her thumb slightly on her right hand. Sensation is better on the right side than the left, where the arm was also transplanted.
She hopes to regain full function within two years.
‘It is just the little things that you take for granted,’ she said. ‘Getting your money out of your purse. The little things.’
Professor Kay also operated recently on John-Paul McGrail, 36, who lost his right arm in a road accident in 2006.
He was given a new hand and arm thanks to a chance conversation with a customer at the shop where he worked in Manchester. ‘I was working in the phone shop one day when a guy came up to me and said, “I hope you don’t mind me asking what happened to your arm”,’ he recalled.
‘I told him and he told me about the transplant team at the LGI. I had no idea it was possible, I couldn’t believe it.’
Mr McGrail left hospital after only two weeks. He said: ‘I’ve got my confidence back and I am excited.’
Professor Kay, who leads a 30strong team, has now carried out five such transplants.
The surgeon said: ‘We had the technology to carry out the procedure 30 years ago but nobody thought the drugs would prevent rejection. We thought it was impossible.’
He added: ‘No transplants are possible without the courage of the patients who donate. If you want to find the real heroes, look at them, they are amazing.’