At 90, KEM Hospital in Mumbai is set to become the first public health facility in Maharashtra to start performing hand transplants, a procedure that was conducted for the first time in the country only last year at the Kochi-based Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
State government and KEM officials are enthused that the procedure, which they say is consistently in demand, will finally be made available and hope that growing awareness on organ donation will help this cause too.
“Just as organ transplants are going on in the city, there is a concept of hand transplants. We had applied for the licence and the inspections were done last week,” said Dr Vinita Puri, Head, Department of Plastic Surgery at KEM Hospital, adding, “When we say hand transplants, it is for people who have had an amputation below the elbow.”
Like people who wait for organs, there are people awaiting limbs too. Only, it is not a life-saving procedure but one that improves the quality of life. And, like in cases of people donating organs of a loved one, officials hope the awareness for limb donation will also pick up.
Dr Puri said if families agree to donate the hand of a deceased loved one, it will be fitted with a prosthetic limb when the body is returned to the relatives so the body doesn’t look mutilated. She added that the recipient will be given immunosuppressant drugs like recipients of organs. “There have been inquiries (for hand transplants), but we were not approved for it so far,” he added.
State health officials said the transplant procedure will help many, particularly from rural areas. They were also pleased that a public hospital has taken the lead. “KEM is the first hospital to apply (for a licence to carry out the procedure). No private hospital has applied so far,” said Dr Gauri Rathod, Transplantation of Human Organs Act, Directorate of Health Services.
Dr Rathod said she has received two inquiries for hand transplants after she appeared in a TV show on organ transplants. “The demand is more in rural areas because there are injuries caused by electric shocks. They also use crushing machines for grain. These injuries are common and many young people suffer,” she said.
The success of the programme hinges on the willingness of families to donate the limb, but officials are optimistic.
Health officials said the procedure will help many, particularly from rural areas
