Asia’s first upper arm double hand transplant done at Amrita Hospital

Team Udayavani, Sep 28, 2017, 4:25 PM IST

Kochi: The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences has successfully conducted a 20 hour upper arm double hand transplant here.

Shreya is pursuing chemical engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology. She lost both her hands in a road mishap last year.

The donor was Sachin, a 20-year-old BCom final year student of Ernakulam’s Rajagiri College. He had been declared brain-dead after suffering a fatal head injury in a motorcycle accident. His parents readily agreed to donate his hands and other organs for transplant.

Shreya is the only daughter of Suma Nuggihalli and Fakirgowda Siddnagowder, a senior manager at Tata Motors, Pune.

In September last year, while she was returning via road from Pune to her college near Mangaluru, Shreya’s hands got crushed when the bus she was travelling in overturned. She was rushed to a hospital where both her arms had to be amputated at the elbow. 

It took 20 surgeons and a 16-member anaesthetic team led by Dr Subrahmania Iyer, head, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department, AIMS, 13 hours to complete the transplantation. 

Shreya is the only daughter of Suma Nuggihalli and Fakirgowda Siddnagowder, a senior manager at Tata Motors, Pune. In September 2016, while returning by road from Pune to her college near Mangalore,the bus she was travelling in overturned, crushing her hands. She was rushed to a hospital, where both her arms had to be amputated at the elbow.