Last updated October 30, 2024 – 4:33 PM
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has launched its latest podcast series exploring the life-changing world of hand transplants.
In Safe Hands hears from patients and medical professionals, highlighting the emotional journeys of those who have experienced the challenges and rewards of undergoing a hand transplant.
Leeds is home to the UK's pioneering hand transplant program, and the podcast focuses on the physical and psychological complexities faced by people who have lost a hand, and how the procedure has changed their lives. guess.
The podcast includes stories from patients like Colin Hutton, who received a double hand transplant in 2019 after losing a limb to pneumonia and sepsis. After years of adjusting to life as an amputee, Corinne's transplant was a ray of hope.
“I didn't even think about the fact that I hadn't been able to hold my son's hand for almost five years,” she recalls.
The series also features insights from Professor Simon Kaye, Head of the Hand Transplant Program and Consultant Plastic Surgeon for Trauma and Allied Services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
Professor Kay and his team play a key role in the highly specialized process of hand transplantation. Although he leads his team in all aspects of the complex process, the patient is at the center of every decision, as there is more to hand transplant surgery than just the clinical outcome.
Professor Kay said: “Ever since the sitcom series Friends, there seems to have been a kind of wave in Western society of hugs rather than handshakes, but the important thing about handshakes is that when you shake someone's hand, you feel the other person's feelings, you look at their face. You have to face it.”
Since its inception in 2012, the Leeds Hand Transplant Program has transformed lives, offering a select group of patients the opportunity to regain natural hand function and appearance. However, hand giving is a complex and sensitive issue. Unlike internal organs, hands are more visible, making the decision to donate particularly difficult for families.
NHS Blood and Transplant manages organ donation, agrees with the donor family and the donation makes the transplant possible. Limbs are not included in the NHS Organ Donor Register, but are instead donated with specific additional consent from the family. Donor and recipient confidentiality will be maintained.
Dale Gardiner, Associate Medical Director for Organ Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “The development of this program is a world-leading achievement that changes people's lives. However, without the consent of families to donate, these surgeries would not have been possible. Thank you to everyone who supported us with this donation. I sincerely thank you.”
In Safe Hands is available on all podcast platforms.
