Transplant surgery has reached incredible heights with genius docs now able to replace a wide variety of body parts for people who need them.
While so many transplants happen on the inside though, cutting-edge science now allows people to get replacements for external body parts too.
Steven Gallagher, a 48-year-old father of three, was diagnosed with scleroderma 13 years ago after developing a strange rash on his cheeks and nose.
His fingers curled up into fists and it quickly became impossible to use his hands.
"My hands started to close, it got to the point where it was basically two fists, my hands were unusable," he told the BBC.
"I couldn't do a thing apart from lift things with two hands. I could not grab anything, it was a struggle to get dressed and things like that."
Despite a chance he could lose his hands altogether, Steven agreed to undergo a pioneering double hand transplant.
"They were really understanding and really open about what might happen, that I could lose my hands altogether," he said.
Steven is thought to be the first person in the world with his condition to have undergone the surgery – and the success of it is incredible.
"These hands are amazing, everything has happened so quickly. From the moment I woke up from the operation, I could move them."
But what are some of the other pioneering moments of transplant surgery to have taken place through history?
When was the first hand transplant?
Bermuda Triangle cruise line offers customers full refund – but only if it disappears
Steven Gallagher’s double hand transplant isn't the first time a hand has been replaced.
In 1999, Clint Hallam of New Zealand lost his hand to a saw while in prison.
A new one was attached successfully, but it was removed a couple of years later when he became “mentally detached from it”, according to Live Science.
What was the first womb transplant?
In 2011 21-year-old Derya Sert was given the womb of a dead woman by doctors at the Akdeniz University Hospital in Turkey.
Derya, who had been born without a uterus, has potentially been given the opportunity to have children naturally.
Dr Omer Ozkan, a member of the surgical team said: "The surgery was a success … But we will be successful when she has her baby."
When was the first penis transplant?
2006 was the year of the first recorded penis transplant. Doctors in China were happy with how the procedure turned out – but the good times didn’t last long.
Just 15 days after the op, surgeons had to remove the member because it was causing psychological distress to the patient’s wife.
The events, recorded in the journal European Urology, took place after an accident left the bloke with a stump less than half an inch long.
He couldn't wee standing up or have sex and so was given the organ of a 22-year old.
Despite being able to go the toilet normally after just 10 days, the penis swelled up, affecting the man’s wife's mental health.
The docs wrote in the journal: "We think that, although we had done as much extensive research as we could preoperatively, what happened after the operation was still beyond our and the patient's imagination because this was the first attempted transplantation."
Has there ever been a face transplant?
In 2013, a pioneering face transplant was carried out in the USA.
Richard Lee Norris lost his nose and lips in an accident with a gun aged 22, and became a hermit for 15 years – ashamed to show his face.
But doctors were able to successfully transplant in replacements.
Doctors used a donor's upper and lower jawbone, teeth, a part of the tongue, and facial tissue.
Within weeks, Norris was able to shave and brush his teeth again.
Source: Read Full Article
