Clint Hallam, 48, originally from New Zealand but now living in Perth, West Australia, lost his right hand in an accident with a chainsaw in 1984.
In a 14-hour operation, carried out at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon, France, an 8-strong team of top specialists, drawn from four countries, notched up a world first as they reattached bones, arteries, veins, nerves, tendons and muscles to give Mr. Hallam his new hand.
The donor was a middle-aged Frenchman who was on a life-support machine, but clinically brain-dead, following a traffic accident earlier this month.
The surgical team was co-led by Prof. Jean-Michel Dubernard, chief transplant surgeon at the Edouard Herriot hospital, and Earl Owen, director of the Centre for Microsurgery in Sydney. A British surgeon, Prof. Nadey Hakim of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, was also in the team. After completing a kidney transplant in London at 8:30 on Wednesday morning (23rd), he rushed to Heathrow airport and by 10:30 a.m. local time in France he was in the operating theatre in Lyon, preparing Mr. Hallam for surgery. He said today that Mr. Hallam was in a comfortable condition.
“I saw him in bed this morning and he seems to be doing well,” said Prof. Hakim, who is an expert in multiple-organ transplant surgery. “He will be able to move his arm soon, but the fingers could take nine months or so to be functioning, because you have to allow the nerves to rejoin.”
Mr. Hallam’s original hand was sewn back on following his accident (which occurred in a prison workshop in Christchurch, New Zealand, where Mr. Hallam was serving a 30-month jail sentence for cheque fraud) but, when it proved to be useless, he chose to have the hand surgically removed in 1989.
In yesterday’s operation, the doctors attached the Ulna bone and the Radius bone to the ends of the bones remaining in the stump of Mr. Hallam’s forearm, before proceeding with the delicate job of joining the seven major nerves, six blood vessels, 15 muscles and various tendons.
The apparent success of the transplant means that the team of specialists have beaten a team from Louisville, Kentucky, USA, who had been hoping to achieve the same result by the end of this year.
Doctors there said that patients undergoing transplant operations of this kind wopuld need to take massive combinations of drugs to prevent tissue rejection. One of the Louisville team, Dr. John Barker, said that it was likely that transplanted limbs would have reasonably good sensation, including a sense of heat and cold, but that the finer nuances of touch and movement might not return. Another consideration, according to a British doctor, was whether the cocktail of immuno-suppressant drugs would in itself damage the patient’s health, rendering him more susceptible to infections and cancers.
Before the operation, Mr. Hallam had said that he felt “humble” to have been offered the chance to be the first to undergo the pioneering transplant, and that it was a breakthrough comparable to the first heart transplant operation.
Team leader Prof. Dubernard was quoted today as saying: “It went very well and we are very pleased with the result. It was a very delicate business and we will now have to wait and see how readily his arm accepts the new limb.
“If it does, this technique will offer hope to the millions of people around the world who have either lost limbs in accidents or wars, or who were born with deformities.”
Mr. Hallam was today recuperating in hospital in Lyon, his arm encased in bandages, but with his new fingers proudly on display, and looking forward to being able to hug his wife Daphne and their four children -- and maybe even playing the piano again!
