A 10-year-old Birendra Singh now will be able to pick up items for the first time in over three years. He has undergone a “toe-to-hand” transplant at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi. He lost his fingers and palm of both hands after an electric burn injury in April 2014. The toe-to-hand transplant surgery implants part of one foot-including the big toe onto the hand, helping a person with amputated hands to get opposable thumbs.
Birendra had burnt his hands, arms, chest, and abdomen when he held onto an immersion rod used to heat water. The 10-year-old was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital from Chattarpur, where the family lived, as the hospital has one of the best burns units in the city. It was only after the serious burns had healed that the doctors started to consider the toe-to-hand transplant. The doctors called the surgery risky and rare, if the transplant does not work, the patient will lose his feet as well as hands.
The surgery took him around 10 hours to complete. The doctors had to extract the big toe and the toe adjacent to it along with the arteries, veins, nerves and tendons. Patients with a double-arm amputation can also benefit from hand donations. “Safdarjung is now starting a programme for implanting hands from brain-dead donors to such patients.
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