A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR MY BOYS
First British recipient of a double hand transplant writes to thank his surgeon for giving him the chance to open a beer and do up his laces again
THE first person in the UK to have a double hand transplant has written to thank the surgeon who carried out the operation.
Last July, Chris King became the second person to have a hand transplant at the UK’s centre for the operation at Leeds General Infirmary – and the first to have both hands replaced.
Now able to make tea, pour a beer and do some gardening, he plans to visit Leeds Rhinos to applaud the rugby league stars.
Looking at his donor hands, Chris, 57, said: “They are my boys, they really are.”
He added: “It’s been going fantastically. I can make a fist, I can hold a pen, I can do more or less the same functions as I could with my original hands.
“There are still limitations but I’m getting back to the full Chris again.”
Chris, from Rossington, near Doncaster, lost both his hands, except the thumbs, in a gruesome accident involving a metal pressing machine at work four years ago.
After his life was saved at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital and he grew stronger, he was directed to consultant plastic surgeon Professor Simon Kay.
Prof Kay had performed the first UK hand transplant on Mark Cahill at the LGI.
Mark, a former pub landlord who lives near Halifax, Yorkshire, had his hand amputated after suffering paralysis following surgery to remove an area affected by gout.
Mark and Chris became friends and are part of an exclusive club, which now has a new member after Prof Kay’s team carried out a further double transplant.
Chris celebrated learning how to hold and use a pen by writing to the professor.
His ability with his new hands is improving every week and his next aims are to tie his own shoelaces and button up his shirt.
He said: “It will be the icing on the cake when I can do my laces, and I don’t think that’s far off.”
Chris’s first aim after his operation was to pour a pint of his favourite Yorkshire ale, Timothy
Taylor’s, from a bottle. He said: “I did enjoy it. It tasted sweeter because of what I had done. It was a mini-celebration, just for me.”
His next target is seeing Leeds Rhinos at their Headingley ground. He said: “I’ve never been but I will go one day and clap a lot and shout a lot, even if we lose.”
Chris wants to thank the family of the person who donated his hands and encourage others to provide “this wonderful gift”.
He said: “We can do some great things in this country. If only we can push it a bit more and don’t be afraid to be a donor.”
Prof Kay said he was delighted with his patients’ progress and has high hopes for the future.
He said: “I’m old enough to remember the first kidney transplants and the first heart transplants and what an extraordinary thing they were. And now they’re routine.
“We would like hand transplantation to be as routine and unremarkable as kidney transplantation.”