The 57-year-old lost both hands in a workplace accident three years ago, but now says he has his life back.
Advertisement
King says he already has some movement in his hands.
Professor Kay’s team now has four more people on the waiting list.
Chris King (57) from Doncaster in England is only the second person in the United Kingdom to have undergone a hand transplant and is the first to have undergone a double hand transplant.
He visited doctors in Sheffield, who talked about possible reconstructive surgery but he said: “Something was telling me, no, there’s something better out there”. “It’s better than winning the lottery because you feel whole again”.
Mr King is only the second person in the country to have a hand transplant. They’re my hands. They really are my hands.
“I think, now that hand transplantation is a reality and people can see the good it does, I hope they’ll consider making that donation as readily as they do a liver and kidney and heart and lungs”.
He is already starting to have some movement, adding: “My blood’s going through them, my tendons are attached”.
“They’re mine – they really are”.
Then he was referred to Professor Simon Kay, a consultant plastic surgeon, who introduced him to Mark Cahill, the first person to have a single hand transplant in the United Kingdom in 2012.
Professor Kay said that people have been slow to donate because hand transplantation is such an unusual thing.
“Nobody cares what their kidney looks like as long as it works”. They really are my hands.
Families also found it harder to contemplate donating the hands of a loved-one, he said. “They absolutely fit. And it’s actually opened a memory because I could never remember what my hands looked like after the accident because that part of my brain shut down”.
After undergoing a complex yet successful treatment, Britain’s first double hand transplant patient is looking forward to pick up a bottle of beer.
“It’s not just about getting his hands back though, it’s about getting his life back and I empathise completely”.
And with typical Yorkshire humour, Chris says the accident happened just after he had learned to stop biting his nails.
Now, he is itching to ride properly and just start doing simple things, such as gardening with his ride-on mower.
Chris King, the first person in Britain to receive a double hand transplant, shows his hands at Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds, England, Thursday July 21, 2016. They can have something better.
He added: “We’ll shake hands one day”.
Advertisement
In the last few days King underwent a 12-hour operation, carried out by a team of eight surgeons, at Leeds General Infirmary.
