The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Double transplant dream
‘Lottery winner’ Chris looks forward to holding bottle of beer
The first person in the UK to have a double hand transplant says he feels “whole again” as he looks forward to holding a bottle of beer and wearing shirts with real buttons.
Chris King, 57, lost both his hands, except the thumbs, in an accident involving a metal pressing machine at work three years ago.
Now Mr King has become the second person to have a hand transplant at the UK’s specialist centre
“I couldn’t wish for anything better. It’s better than a Lottery win”
for the operation at Leeds General Infirmary, and the first to have both hands replaced.
Recovering after the surgery, he said: “I couldn’t wish for anything better.
“It’s better than a lottery win because you feel whole again.”
Mr King, who is single and from Rossington, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said the operation appears to have been a complete success.
He said he already has some movement.
“They look absolutely tremendous,” he said.
“They’remy hands. They really are my hands. My blood’s going through them. My tendons are attached. They’re mine. They really are.
“I can’t wait to get all this (the bandages) off and look at them properly.”
He said: “It was just like the hands were made-tomeasure. They absolutely fit. And it’s actually opened a memory because I could never remember what my hands looked like after the accident because that part of my brain shut down.”
Mr King recalled how he spent three years getting used to having no hands and resigned himself to living an adapted life despite little reminders from his five-year-old niece.
“A couple of weeks ago she was holding my thumbs, walking with me, and she said ‘Uncle Chris, whenare you going togrow some fingers?’,” he said.
He joked that he had only just trained himself to stop biting his nails when the accident happened.
Mr King said his passion was cycling and he had alreadyhada bike adapted so he could use it.
Now, he is itching to ride properly and start doing simple things, such as gardening with his ride-on mower.
He said: “I want to start using mechanical things and start trimming the hedge and do what I used to do and then I’ll be happy.”
He said: “I could shout from the rooftops and celebrate it big-time, which is what I’m going to do.”
Mr King said he was looking forwardto ditching the ‘ Full Monty Velcro’ shirts he has had to use.
And he is most looking forward to holding a bottle of beer properly.