Hand transplant patient writes letter of thanks

The surgeon who has carried out the UK's first three hand transplants says he is hoping the operation will soon become as a routine as kidney transplantation.

Consultant plastic surgeon Professor Simon Kay said he is incredibly pleased with the progress of Chris King, 57, from Doncaster, nearly nine months after the surgery to attach donor hands to both his wrecked limbs.

He is also encouraged by the progress of Mark Cahill, who was the first hand transplant patient in the UK in 2012, and another man, who has not been identified, who became Prof Kay's third successful transplant patient at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) when he was given two new hands earlier this year, one including his lower arm.

And two more patients, both women, are lined up for surgery at the LGI in the near future, as donors become available.

"The programme is now well-established,'' Prof Kay said.

"It's now become mature. We understand the indications, the process. We now have three transplant patients completed and another two to go.''

The professor said that his aim has been to establish a National Health Service centre in Leeds which will build up an expertise in the procedure.

He said: "We learned from Mark for Chris and from Chris for the next patient.''

Prof Kay said: "All around the world, small units have done the occasional transplant.

"What we want wanted to do was come into the welfare state-funded health system and say, now, let's have this new technique; let's use it, evaluate it, work out what works, learn the lessons from case-to-case and roll it out as a service.

"We would like hand transplantation to be as routine and unremarkable as kidney transplantation.

"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. I think the National Health Service is the perfect environment to take a new procedure like this, evaluate it and make it work - make it routine and successful.''

Mr King was the first patient to undergo the procedure since NHS England awarded the contract to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust a year ago to become the UK's specialist centre for hand transplants.

In July last year, Prof Kay led a team of eight surgeons who spent 12 hours operating on Mr King.

He said: "He's been fantastic. His results by eight months are even more impressive than we expected.

"He's proved to be, as he proved right at the beginning, a very robust resilient patient, very enthusiastic about his hands and I think he's absolutely delighted.''

The professor said he was amazed to receive a Christmas card and letter from Mr King, written with one of his new hands.

"When you bear in mind he will go on improving for another two years, he's really remarkable - a really vindication for the surgery he's had.

"He's doing more, sooner than we expected. He's well ahead of our expectations.

"There is a sequence, but we expected it to be spread out over a much longer period of time. And a lot of that is down to his extraordinary enthusiasm and hard work.''

Like Mr King, Prof Kay encouraged everyone to think about the need for donors.

He said: "When you see Chris and Mark, it's quite clear that this has revolutionised their lives. It's taken them from the despair of complete disability to virtually normal life. So, it's a very important thing and it's a remarkable thing, donation.''

Mr Cahill, a former pub landlord from Greetland, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, has since regained almost complete use of his transplanted hand and can pick up his grandchildren, tie his shoelaces and drive a car.

He reportedly used the limb to save his wife's life last year after she suffered a heart attack.