Chennai doctors attempting double hand transplant

CHENNAI: Doctors in Government Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai began a double hand transplant on a man on Wednesday evening. If successful, this will be the first double hand transplant in Tamil Nadu.
The limbs came from M Venkatesan, who suffered a severe brain injury after he tripped from the stairs at his house in Manali. The 37-year-old contract labourer in the Indian Oil Corporation was admitted to hospital on Monday with severe bleeding in the brain. Neurosurgeons did an emergency surgery, but Venkatesan did not recover. On Wednesday, after he was declared brain dead, his family agreed to donate his organs and his hands.

The recipient - whose name and details are withheld - will receive both the hands in a transplant that is expected to go on for at least eight hours, said Stanley Hospital dean Dr Ponnambala Namasivayam. "We can't reveal more details about the surgery not about the recipient as of now," he said.

Doctors harvested his vital organs, eyes and skin. The liver was sent to patient in Vellore-based Christian Medical College Hospital. One of the kidneys was retained for a patient in Stanley Hospital while the other was sent to a patient at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. The eyes were sent to Government Eye Hospital in Egmore.