A roofer whose hands were rendered unusable by an autoimmune disease has expressed his joy after NHS surgeons successfully performed the world’s first double-handed transplant for the disease.
Steven Gallagher was forced to stop working after scleroderma, a condition that affects the skin and internal organs, caused his hands to close in a fist position. After first developing an unusual rash about 13 years ago, the disease affected her nose and mouth, her fingers began to curl, and she suffered from “horrible” pain.
But after undergoing a 12-hour operation at Leeds NHS Trust Teaching Hospital, the first time in the world that a hand transplant has been used to replace terminally affected hands with scleroderma, he can turn on the tap. and fill a glass of water for the first time in years. Gallagher, 48, is now waiting to return to work.
Steven Gallagher, with his dog, Skye. Photography: Jane Barlow / PA
“After the operation I woke up and it was pretty surreal because before I had my hands on and then when I woke up from the operation I still had hands, so in my head I never lost a hand,” he said. “These hands are amazing, everything has happened very quickly. From the moment I woke up from the operation I was able to move them.”
Gallagher spent about four weeks in Leeds general infirmary after the operation in December 2021 and makes regular visits to Glasgow hospitals for physiotherapy and follow-up. His condition improves more than five months after the operation, and while he can’t do tasks that require great skill like making buttons, the father of three can do things like petting his family’s dog.
“It has given me a new life,” he said. “Right now I’m finding things difficult, but things are getting better every week with the physiotherapist and occupational therapists, everything is slowly improving. The pain is great. The pain before the operation was horrible, it was so much to relieve the pain that it was amazing, but now I have no pain. “
When experts first suggested the idea of a double hand transplant, Gallagher of Dreghorn, North Ayrshire, initially rejected the idea. But he later decided to move on despite the risks, and is grateful to the person and family of the donor who made the transplant possible.
“My hands started to close, it got to the point that they were basically two fists, my hands were unusable, I couldn’t do anything but lift things with both hands,” he recalled. “I couldn’t catch anything, it was a struggle to get dressed and things like that.
“When Professor Hart of Glasgow told me about a double-handed transplant, at that moment I laughed and thought it was a space-age thing … My wife and I talked about it and we “It simply came to our notice then. I could have lost my hands anyway.
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Professor Simon Kay, of Leeds NHS Trust teaching hospitals, said the surgery was “a great team effort” with up to 30 health professionals involved.
“Having a hand transplant is very different from a kidney or other organ transplant, as hands are something we see every day and we use them in many ways,” Kay said. “That’s why we and our expert clinical psychologists evaluate and prepare patients, to make sure they can cope psychologically with the permanent reminder of their transplant and the risk that the body may reject transplanted hands.”