After her surgery, Shreya Siddanagowda’s darker-toned transplants became lighter.
The life of Shreya Siddanagowda (24) suffered a capsize in 2016 when, at the age of 18, she was involved in a bus accident inside India that crushed both arms. Due to the delay in the emergency room, both limbs had to be amputated below her elbow.
The young woman underwent intensive surgery to receive the arm transplant a 20-year-old donor who died in a bicycle accident. The surgery was successful as her body tolerated her new parts without any problems.
The surprising thing about the case is that the skin color of the implants was a few shades darker than his natural skin, as the donor was a tall man with large, thin fingers. But now, her arms and hands have become lighter, matching her natural color.
Siddanagowda had to undergo physical therapy to adapt to her new hands.
a second chance
“Sometimes good things fall apart so the best things can come together” was the first sentence Shreya Siddanagowder wrote in her notebook a year after her transplant.
Today her handwriting matches hers, but what surprised the doctors most is how the color of Shreya’s arms changed to match the rest of her skin tone.
Siddanagowder underwent the first intergender arm transplant in Asia. The surgery was carried out at the Hospital of Medical Sciences (AIMS) and the surgeons are investigating whether female hormones could be the key to such changes.
Globally, fewer than 200 hand transplants have been performed and there is no scientific evidence to record changes in skin tone.
his life changed forever
In September 2016, during a trip from Pune to the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka, India. Shreya was in a bus accident that required the amputation of both limbs. A year later, she visited the Amrita Institute to register for the transplant.
The hospital where the complex surgery was performed was the only center in Asia that performs such operations. At the time, there were more than 200 amputees on the waiting list.
“The transplant coordinator said it could take months for a donor to arrive. We return to our hotel without any hope. An hour later, the hospital called us again for urgent blood tests, “Shreya recalled while talking to the Indian media.
After her surgery, Shreya Siddanagowda’s darker-toned transplants became lighter.
His donor was named Sachin, a 20-year-old who was pronounced brain dead the day after he had a bicycle accident. His family had agreed to donate his weapons and other organs.
Shreya’s blood type was compatible with that of the young man. On the same day, August 9, 2017, a team of 20 surgeons performed the transplant which took more than 13 hours. The donor’s hand was first joined to the bone, then to the arteries, veins and muscles before the skin was stitched to the upper limb.
For a year and a half, the young woman stayed in Kochi to undergo intensive physiotherapy. The peripheral nerves were slow to develop. “Her hand felt heavy, it was bulky at first,” the young woman said in an interview with Indian express.
Believe or break out
One of the first changes Shreya experienced was the weight loss of her arms as the excess fat slowly dissolved to fit her leaner upper limb.
Shreya’s hand. The first limb transplant operation was completed in 1998 in New Zealand.
“I don’t know how the transformation happened. But they feel like they’re mine. The skin color was very dark after the transplant, not that it was my concern, but now it matches my tone, ”Shreya surprised AFP.
Another major change in her new body has occurred in the last 3 or 4 months: the girl’s mother noticed that her fingers were getting thinner, a little longer.
Science tries to explain his case
Dr Iyer, who treated her, said the color of Siddanagowda’s arms quickly began to show “a lot of changes,” but that a scientific explanation is difficult to find.
Her colleague Shehla Agarwal said the absence of testosterone explains why the hands became less hairy and commented that other hormonal changes could explain the color change. And also that the donor may have been exposed to more sunlight and physical activity than the woman.
Shreya, shortly after her groundbreaking arm transplant surgery at the institute of medical sciences.
“We all feel very happy for her,” said Dr. Iyer.
Today painted nails and skin tone allow her to lead a normal social life. She has meanwhile dropped out of engineering and is now pursuing a business degree. She currently writes the exams by herself, by hand.
Source: Clarin