Armenian surgeon leads world's first double-arm-and-shoulder transplant

An Icelandic man who got the world’s first double-shoulder-and-arm transplant is recovering well after the operation, two decades after the accident that cost him both limbs, doctors have said, The Guardian reported.

They said it was still uncertain how much mobility Felix Gretarsson, 48, will recover following the operation earlier this month in Lyon, France.

But “giving a little to somebody who was missing so much, that’s already a lot” Aram Gazarian, the lead surgeon—and who is Armenian—in the operation, told a news conference on Friday.

On 12 January, 1998, Gretarsson, an electrician, was working on a high-voltage power line when an 11,000-volt surge burned his hands and flung him to the icy ground.

He sustained multiple fractures and internal injuries, and went into a three-month coma during which surgeons amputated both arms.

He underwent several more operations, including a liver transplant.

It took years to find suitable donors, during which some 50 medical staff in total became involved in the preparations for the operation.

No serious complications had been detected nine days after the operation, doctors said.

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