Low awareness of external organ donation hinders life-enhancing arm transplants, vital for amputees' rehabilitation and quality of life.
- Dr Nilesh Satbhai conducts Asia’s first bilateral full arm transplant at Global Hospitals, Mumbai on Prema Ram Choudhary
- He stresses that limb donation is the need of the hour for millions of amputees around the world
- He and his team have done seven arm transplants so far, Prema Ram’s case being the most complicated
- Globally, the first arm transplant up to the elbow had been done in Germany between 2000 and 2006 and the first bilateral full arm transplant happened in France in 2021
- How is a bilateral full arm transplant done?
- How do the recipient’s nerves grow into the transplanted arms post-surgery, and how long does it take?
- What part does counselling and family support play in the road to recovery?
- Why do we need a lot more awareness to ensure donation of external organs like arms and legs?
- Dr Nilesh Satbhai answers our questions about arm transplants
“There are millions of amputees across the world. Just considering India, close to 20 to 25,000 new amputees are added every year to this pool. So, the demand for hands is tremendous. As compared to that, the awareness in the society for organ donation in general is extremely low.”
That was plastic surgeon Dr Nilesh Satbhai, senior consultant and head at Global Hospitals in Mumbai. Only last month, he had conducted Asia’s first bilateral full arm transplant on Prema Ram Choudhary, a 33-year-old man from Rajasthan. And he can’t seem to stop talking about how much easier it would all have been if there was more awareness about the donation of external organs like arms and legs.