They performed the first double arm and shoulder transplant in history

Icelandic Gretarsson is the first man to have undergone a double arm and shoulder transplant.

Félix Gretarsson, a 48-year-old electrician, will go down in medical history as the first man to have a double arm and shoulder transplant. We do not yet know how much mobility he will find, but two weeks after this unprecedented intervention, carried out at the Edouard Herriot hospital, in the city of Lyon, in the south-east of France, he admits that he feels good , especially full of hope for a better future.

On January 12, 1998, 26-year-old Gretarsson was working on a high-voltage power line when an 11,000-volt surge burned his hands and threw him on the frozen ground. He suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries.

He was in a coma for three months and when he came out of that state he both amputated arms. In addition, he had to undergo several other operations, including a liver transplant.

In 2010, there was a similar case: John Peck, a US Marine, lost his arms and legs after stepping on an explosive in Afghanistan and suffered dramatic experiences before, in 2016, in a Boston hospital, in the United States they were able to do him a successful double arm transplant.

Gretarsson also needed a shoulder transplant and his seemed an irreversible fate, only from the outside because he did not resign himself and constantly sought a solution to his problem.

Aram Gazarian, chief surgeon of the operation

Giving a little to someone who was losing so much is already a lot.

A day when Jean-Michel Dubernard, the pioneer of hand transplantation, visited Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital, to give a conference, Gretarsson came to ask him if it would be possible to replace the lost members. “It was his biggest dream,” said his wife Sylwia. With this in mind, seven years ago, he moved to Lyon because of the notoriety that the city had acquired in the matter.

Double arm and shoulder transplant

Finding suitable donors has taken years. During this time, around 50 medical personnel participated in the preparations for the operation. “At this level of amputation, we can’t promise anything», Declared Lionel Badet, the surgeon who, in 2010, launched the medical protocol of the operation.

January 13 four teams of professionals they dedicated themselves to working on both limbs. They did a bone reconstruction, revascularized the extremities and finally, they devoted themselves to the delicate task of connecting the muscles, tendons, nerves and skin.

// Her hands have been amputated but she can wear makeup thanks to the bionic arms

“I always knew it was going to happen,” said Gretarsson, referring to this transplant. “I’m starting to think of them as my own (…) although it was not easy and above all very painful. The first 24 hours were horrible ”, explained the Icelandic to the weekly Tribune.

According to her own perception, her development shortly after surgery is “very good”. From his transplant ward, he comments: “I take a lot of pain relievers but I feel that every day I move forward“.

“Giving a little to someone who was losing so much is already a lot,” Aram Gazarian, senior surgeon for the operation, told a press conference. “If he could regain the ability to actively bend his elbow, it would be life changing,” he added.

Gretarsson is optimistic about the possibility of regain some mobility on his limbs, although he cannot gain any. The man assures us that he begins to appropriate his arms. “I like my hands, they look like the old ones,” he says.

// Both his arms have been transplanted and a documentary has been made about his incredible recovery

The doctors who operated on him say that provide for the right arm to become functional, it is better than for the left, which also required a complete reconstruction of the shoulder. The good sign is that to date, no serious complications have been detected.

After the historic intervention, the Icelandic had to spend another three weeks in hospital before being transferred to a physical rehabilitation and neurological rehabilitation service, near Lyon. In front years of work. During the process, he will not be alone, in addition to being accompanied by his wife, the team which assisted him ensures that they will support him throughout his life.