10 ms·

21-year-old student from Pune and the curious case of her changing hands

221 points by rchaudhary 7y ago

JPLeRouzic 7y ago
Thanks for sharing this story. I really like it. The change of color is one thing but it would be interesting to know how the brain rewrites its motor cortex to connect to the right peripheral nerves and to the muscles they connect to.
- dole 7y ago
  Change of color was one thing but the change of shape was very surprising. tl;dr: changes in color and shape may have been due to hormones being the first(?) male-to-female hand transplant, hand shape became more female.
  - jtbayly 7y ago
    But don't forget there's no such thing as male and female... /s
    - fennecfoxen 7y ago
      Regardless of whether one ought to forget, this is hardly the forum.
  - gibolt 7y ago
    They mentioned her losing 12kg after an infection. There could be more to it, but that is a significant loss that could explain much of it
  - hinkley 7y ago
    I kinda suspect that gender reassignment patients and their doctors were not at all surprised by this change.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  Is that necessarily needed? Couldn’t the nerves still control the same muscles?
  - hinkley 7y ago
    My understanding was that the location and arrangement of peripheral nerves in the human body is not fixed. So which parts go where is not identical. But yes, supposedly you can relearn. I cut the shit out of my thumb a few years ago and was relieved that I could still feel everything, except for one little spot below the cut (which also pooled blood for a while, both issues have resolved now) I’d heard that it’s a crap shoot whether you hit the nerve or not, and none of the three doctors I talked to disagreed with me.
forkexec 7y ago
So I assume she has to take immunosuppressants more/less for life, but then that leads to immunodeficiency too?
- robotnikman 7y ago
  I would assume so. If we ever find a way to prevent our immune systems from attacking transplants it would be a major breakthrough, and organ transplants would last far longer for the recipient.
  - forkexec 7y ago
    I wonder then how it works that some people are able to stop immunosuppressants and not experience rejection? Perhaps finding the fundamental basis for this and whether it's replicable just after transplant would have the potential to save an enormous amount of money, hassles and risks.
- dna_polymerase 7y ago
  It's among the side-effects [0]. But it sees that the general understanding of the immune system gets better as well as therapies. [0]: http://www.ectrx.org/forms/ectrxcontentshow.php?year=2019&volume=17&issue=1&supplement=0&makale_no=0&spage_number=97&content_type=FULL%20TEXT http://www.ectrx.org/forms/ectrxcontentshow.php?year=2019&vo...
codezero 7y ago
Wow I didn’t realize so few people had hand transplants. For numbers that low in the human experience, I like to compare with the number of people who’ve been to space. At 200 transplants, that is twice as rare as going to space!
- nkkollaw 7y ago
  Ha! That's neat.
- Someone 7y ago
  The technical part of hand transplants is hard; there’s a lot of nerves and muscles to connect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_transplantation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_transplantation: ”The operation is quite extensive and typically lasts from 8 to 12 hours. By comparison, a typical heart transplant operation lasts 6 to 8 hours”. Apart from that, there’s the psychological aspect. Recipients must accept their new hand as theirs. That can require extensive psychological support. Then, there’s the ethical aspect. Unlike heart transplants, a hand transplant isn’t life-saving, but like it, it condemns patients to the life-long use of immunosuppressants, with the side effect of a weaker immune system. Prosthetics may be the better choice. It also is a lot cheaper. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499956/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499956/ claims ”The lifetime cost of a single hand transplantation is approximately $528,293; on average 62% of this total is due to expensive immunosuppressive therapy and postoperative management.18 The lifetime cost for a single prosthetic adaptation is approximately $20,653 […] The quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) of prosthetic adaptation exceed those for hand transplantation, due to the complications of immunosuppression.”
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - notRobot 7y ago
    Most of your comment makes sense to me, except this bit: > Then, there’s the ethical aspect. Unlike heart transplants, a hand transplant isn’t life-saving, but like it, it condemns patients to the life-long use of immunosuppressants, with the side effect of a weaker immune system. Prosthetics may be the better choice. Surely it's up to the transplant recipient to decide what will be best for them? I'm sure there are many people to whom the trade off will be worth it. How exactly do "ethics" come into play here?
iandanforth 7y ago
Can any trans folk comment on if they've noticed significant changes in their hands in response to hormone treatment?
- btilly 7y ago
  I know trans people whose hands are closer to the gender that their brains say that they are than their biological one. However they also took hormones during puberty, so it is an open question whether this was the effect of hormones during development, or hormones after development.
- whelming_wave 7y ago
  Anecdotally, I feel like my hands have changed to be slimmer after 3.5 years of estrogen, but I haven't taken any measurements and don't have detailed photos of my hands before/after.
- delecti 7y ago
  Not really. At least from personal anecdote, it seems more likely it's due to her losing a bunch of weight. Most of hand bulk is bone structure which is mostly static after puberty. The skin does definitely change though, and that plus the weight loss IMO explains everything. Edit: For context, I started hormones a week before my 20th birthday, almost 13 years ago. Long enough ago that I've seen the full effects I'm going to, and it was after most of puberty.
- AprilArcus 7y ago
  I've been on hormones for nine years. None of the reported changes strike me as implausible. My skin became gradually softer, and my hairs finer and less pigmented over the first couple years of hormone therapy, and by about six and a half years in, some skeletal changes became evident. I've noticed that folks' skin tone tends to darken and lighten about a shade on testosterone and estrogen, respectively. I did not personally notice pigmentation changes, but my skin was very light to begin with. As for my hands, I can't make interesting specific comments; all these things seem to be systemic. I'm sure that the ratio of the lengths of my ring and index finger (a sexually dimorphic trait) did not change. I have a vivid memory of looking at the back of my hands while driving and feeling intensely uncomfortable with my "man hands", just around the time I started hormones. That thought never crossed my mind again, though, after a short time I felt fine with them and haven't been bothered by them since. I suppose they must have changed enough to relieve my anxiety while I was distracted by other more dramatic effects.
jfengel 7y ago
The photo shows her holding a pen. It's amazing that you can transplant something as complex as a hand and use it to manipulate something as delicately as writing. The photo doesn't show her wrists very clearly, but not only has the color matched, but I don't see any scarring. I'm sure it's there, but even so... it's just stunning how good this is.
- zapdrive 7y ago
  The hands were connected near the elbow. There's another picture further down.
- usddddd 7y ago
  It looks like the transplant attached the hands and forearms to the upper part of the recipients arm. She lost basically just below the elbow in the accident it seems.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
When I was younger, I used to routinely joke on the internet that "I have three shades: White, off-white and lobster red." I didn't really tan. I mostly went from cadaverous white to badly sunburned. I've taken a long strange journey of healing and one of the side effects is that I am now capable of tanning. So based on my experience, I will suggest that gut biome may be a factor here. It's less obvious than "female hormones" in a cross-gender transplant, but it more closely fits my experience of changes in skin function and color. For background info to help you understand the context: I have a form of cystic fibrosis, not diagnosed until my mid thirties. My maiden name is Irish in origin and discussion on CF lists years ago suggested that people with CF are "typically" very pale skinned with blonde hair. Irish families are the most likely to have more than one member with a diagnosis of CF and Irish people tend to be very pale and often don't tan well.
mkl 7y ago
> Hand donations are rare, because few families are willing to donate limbs fearing disfiguration of the body even though a prosthetic limb is fitted to the donor’s body. Can someone explain this? Is it an Indian thing? If I died and donated my hands, I would be proud for them to be missing in the casket. I can only see because two people donated their corneas.
- staticautomatic 7y ago
  Lots of cultures have strongly-held mystical beliefs about dead bodies, going back thousands of years. There are plenty of famous examples, even, like the fights over Patroclus and Hector's dead bodies in the Iliad.
- vsskanth 7y ago
  There is a stigma because some people believe your body needs to be whole during your last rites (Even though you cremate the body in the end if you're Hindu). This is pure superstition. This is gradually changing with increasing education and awareness among people, making organ donations socially acceptable and something to be proud of.
  - pmarreck 7y ago
    > some people believe your body needs to be whole during your last rites (Even though you cremate the body in the end if you're Hindu). This is pure superstition It's not just superstition, it's easily defeated with reason: If this were true, then every innocent person who has to suffer an amputation due to an accident would be unjustly disadvantaged. It's similar to people who argue against gay marriage since kids aren't produced: This implies every heterosexual marriage without children is worthless
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      > it's easily defeated with reason: If this were true, then every innocent person who has to suffer an amputation due to an accident would be unjustly disadvantaged How's that a defeat? Terrible things happen unjustly all the time. Every innocent person who has to suffer an amputation due to an accident already is unjustly disadvantaged; it's not like this is an impossible state of affairs. (Just ask them whether they'd prefer to have their appendages back!)
bilekas 7y ago
Wow.. Wow wow wow. I had no idea this was even remotely possible... I would never have imagine that the nervous system alone would be able to adjust. This is incredible. I'm really curious now if there have been other transplants like this before with similar results? > The nerve begins to send signals, it is called reinnervation, and the muscles function according to body needs. Also, is this just letting the body 're-connect' or is this some specific medical process to achieve ? Either way this is incredible!
- hinkley 7y ago
  Are you talking about the general case of attaching nerves or the specific case of the physiological changes here? From the article they seemed to be describing well known phenomena regarding peripheral nerves. The myelin sheath can survive detachment, the nerve does not. With finger re-attachment, a very talented surgeon reattaches the sheathes, and new nerves grow down the channel, at a rate of about an inch a month (mentioned in passing in the article). So for a finger, with some luck you should be able to feel your fingertips in a few months. The arms would have taken a year or more. (I can't imagine what that feels like, emotionally). There's also a lot of plasticity in the brain. I'd heard of cases where a badly seared finger has a patch of skin grafted from the side of another finger to restore tactile function. They move the skin patch with the nerves still attached, and at first your brain tells you that the side of your finger is being touched. With rehab your brain eventually believes that the sensation now happening to your thumb actually occured on your thumb. But she would have had to do this for the whole lower arm, twice.
  - bilekas 7y ago
    Again.. I am blown away. > well known phenomena regarding peripheral nerves. This for starters has my mind blown, but I was curious if they were using techniques that were enhancing that. > new nerves grow down the channel, at a rate of about an inch a month Again, amazing! I guess I just never appreciated how amazing the body really is. I always take it for granted of course, but the nervous system for me was always like a webbing, that if broken could never grow back. Insane, thank you for the info! And again, credit to her and her physicians, nurses and donor. Amazing!
connectsnk 7y ago
I didnt know such surgeries could be performed in India. I didnt even know such surgeries were possible in the first place let alone being done in India
- scarejunba 7y ago
  Interestingly, not only can such surgeries be performed in India but some kinds of surgeries have better outcomes in India for cheaper prices than in America. I believe it's some kinds of heart surgeries that I saw the stats for.
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    Surgeons who do lots of surgery are better than other surgeons who don't. This advantage dominates those of training, resources, years of experience, etc. It's no surprise that inexpensive surgeons in a populous nation would be the best.
    - ferzul 7y ago
      practice makes perfect
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- blntechie 7y ago
  India has some very good doctors and hospitals but are generally unviable financially for most of the population. Hypothetically, if the doctors and health staff lost to the West and Middle East over the last 50 years remained, it would have much stronger reputation for great doctors. But that’s again a what-if thing.
zupreme 7y ago
After reading, I feel the need to know how, when, and why he died.
- happy-go-lucky 7y ago
  "She came to know later that Sachin, a B.Com student from Ernakulam’s Rajagiri College, had been declared brain dead that day after being involved in a bike accident — and that his family had agreed to donate his hands and other organs."
natch 7y ago
Site is currently hosting UI-hijacking ads that kick in after 15 seconds or so. Flagged.
- pmarreck 7y ago
  Agree. The story is good but this source is absolute trash. This is why people use devices like PiHoles and adblock.
scarejunba 7y ago
Genuinely blows my mind that hand transplants are possible.
happy-go-lucky 7y ago
Here's a video from the Institute where she underwent the transplantation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RjakQiWPDMk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RjakQiWPDMk
sxv 7y ago
The analyses and speculation in the article place too much emphasis on sex / gender and too little on general diversity of physical characteristics. But perhaps I am jumping to that conclusion because I regard India as having archaic, sexist modalities.
- macewindu 7y ago
  > I regard India as having archaic, sexist modalities. Unlike USA?
autonoshitbox 7y ago
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in my entire life.
justplay 7y ago
wow. I feels like I should also donate my body. I am really proud of those doctor and wishing alot of happiness to that family who donated there child body. As an indian and hindu, I can feel how big this means.
aaron695 7y ago
No one suspicious there is no footage of her gripping things? This is amazing, totally amazing, but you are not in a Sci-Fi movie. Her hands are quite limited. > Today, her handwriting almost matches her original Here is footage of her writing, but you don't see her initially gripping the pen. Certainly her hand writing will have changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1scH3riEc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1scH3riEc I get in India life is tough for many people so the media does all these great glossy stories that border on lies, it seems built into the system, individual facts are not as important as the story. But it's not that simple.
robocat 7y ago
Flagged: redirects to lottery won advert after a timeout on Android.
- perilunar 7y ago
  I got that too on Mac/Safari. Disabled JS and went back.
r00f 7y ago
Not sure why that should be surprise. Skin does not go light or dark randomly, it depends on the amount of melanin and other things body produces. If her natural skin is light, the skin of new hands lost all additional pigmentation over time and went to the body average levels.
steeve 7y ago
The article is impossible to read on mobile because of ads. After a few seconds it redirects to some shady website.
stared 7y ago
> Hand donations are rare, because few families are willing to donate limbs fearing disfiguration of the body even though a prosthetic limb is fitted to the donor’s body. In my opinion, this state of things is a strong argument for utilitarianism for organ transplantation[1]. For me, it is hard to find a measure in which an additional discomfort during a funeral[2] outweighs the discomfort of living with a life-altering disability (e.g. no hands) or well, dying (which affects their family members, friends, etc). [1] I support an option that people may personally opt-out of the system, meaning that they don't agree for their own body to be donated (and agree they won't be a recipient). [2] In many places closed-coffin funerals are a standard, regardless of the state of the deceased.
- BrandoElFollito 7y ago
  Opting out of the system would require to spend some time with the people these incredibly selfish people deny from a hope of a better life. That would need to be a strict oup out system, no questions asked to anyone if no opt out. Finally, the opt out system should be designed by the people who designed some gov sites (crazy captchas, scrollbar behaving erraticaly, confusing questions, pale on pale colors, internet explorer 6 required)

221 points by rchaudhary 7y ago

Thanks for sharing this story. I really like it. The change of color is one thing but it would be interesting to know how the brain rewrites its motor cortex to connect to the right peripheral nerves and to the muscles they connect to.

dole 7y ago
Change of color was one thing but the change of shape was very surprising. tl;dr: changes in color and shape may have been due to hormones being the first(?) male-to-female hand transplant, hand shape became more female.
- jtbayly 7y ago
  But don't forget there's no such thing as male and female... /s
  - fennecfoxen 7y ago
    Regardless of whether one ought to forget, this is hardly the forum.
- gibolt 7y ago
  They mentioned her losing 12kg after an infection. There could be more to it, but that is a significant loss that could explain much of it
- hinkley 7y ago
  I kinda suspect that gender reassignment patients and their doctors were not at all surprised by this change.
lostlogin 7y ago
Is that necessarily needed? Couldn’t the nerves still control the same muscles?
- hinkley 7y ago
  My understanding was that the location and arrangement of peripheral nerves in the human body is not fixed. So which parts go where is not identical. But yes, supposedly you can relearn. I cut the shit out of my thumb a few years ago and was relieved that I could still feel everything, except for one little spot below the cut (which also pooled blood for a while, both issues have resolved now) I’d heard that it’s a crap shoot whether you hit the nerve or not, and none of the three doctors I talked to disagreed with me.

forkexec 7y ago

So I assume she has to take immunosuppressants more/less for life, but then that leads to immunodeficiency too?

robotnikman 7y ago
I would assume so. If we ever find a way to prevent our immune systems from attacking transplants it would be a major breakthrough, and organ transplants would last far longer for the recipient.
- forkexec 7y ago
  I wonder then how it works that some people are able to stop immunosuppressants and not experience rejection? Perhaps finding the fundamental basis for this and whether it's replicable just after transplant would have the potential to save an enormous amount of money, hassles and risks.
dna_polymerase 7y ago
It's among the side-effects [0]. But it sees that the general understanding of the immune system gets better as well as therapies. [0]: http://www.ectrx.org/forms/ectrxcontentshow.php?year=2019&volume=17&issue=1&supplement=0&makale_no=0&spage_number=97&content_type=FULL%20TEXT http://www.ectrx.org/forms/ectrxcontentshow.php?year=2019&vo...

codezero 7y ago

Wow I didn’t realize so few people had hand transplants. For numbers that low in the human experience, I like to compare with the number of people who’ve been to space. At 200 transplants, that is twice as rare as going to space!

nkkollaw 7y ago
Ha! That's neat.
Someone 7y ago
The technical part of hand transplants is hard; there’s a lot of nerves and muscles to connect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_transplantation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_transplantation: ”The operation is quite extensive and typically lasts from 8 to 12 hours. By comparison, a typical heart transplant operation lasts 6 to 8 hours”. Apart from that, there’s the psychological aspect. Recipients must accept their new hand as theirs. That can require extensive psychological support. Then, there’s the ethical aspect. Unlike heart transplants, a hand transplant isn’t life-saving, but like it, it condemns patients to the life-long use of immunosuppressants, with the side effect of a weaker immune system. Prosthetics may be the better choice. It also is a lot cheaper. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499956/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499956/ claims ”The lifetime cost of a single hand transplantation is approximately $528,293; on average 62% of this total is due to expensive immunosuppressive therapy and postoperative management.18 The lifetime cost for a single prosthetic adaptation is approximately $20,653 […] The quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) of prosthetic adaptation exceed those for hand transplantation, due to the complications of immunosuppression.”
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- notRobot 7y ago
  Most of your comment makes sense to me, except this bit: > Then, there’s the ethical aspect. Unlike heart transplants, a hand transplant isn’t life-saving, but like it, it condemns patients to the life-long use of immunosuppressants, with the side effect of a weaker immune system. Prosthetics may be the better choice. Surely it's up to the transplant recipient to decide what will be best for them? I'm sure there are many people to whom the trade off will be worth it. How exactly do "ethics" come into play here?

iandanforth 7y ago

Can any trans folk comment on if they've noticed significant changes in their hands in response to hormone treatment?

btilly 7y ago
I know trans people whose hands are closer to the gender that their brains say that they are than their biological one. However they also took hormones during puberty, so it is an open question whether this was the effect of hormones during development, or hormones after development.
whelming_wave 7y ago
Anecdotally, I feel like my hands have changed to be slimmer after 3.5 years of estrogen, but I haven't taken any measurements and don't have detailed photos of my hands before/after.
delecti 7y ago
Not really. At least from personal anecdote, it seems more likely it's due to her losing a bunch of weight. Most of hand bulk is bone structure which is mostly static after puberty. The skin does definitely change though, and that plus the weight loss IMO explains everything. Edit: For context, I started hormones a week before my 20th birthday, almost 13 years ago. Long enough ago that I've seen the full effects I'm going to, and it was after most of puberty.
AprilArcus 7y ago
I've been on hormones for nine years. None of the reported changes strike me as implausible. My skin became gradually softer, and my hairs finer and less pigmented over the first couple years of hormone therapy, and by about six and a half years in, some skeletal changes became evident. I've noticed that folks' skin tone tends to darken and lighten about a shade on testosterone and estrogen, respectively. I did not personally notice pigmentation changes, but my skin was very light to begin with. As for my hands, I can't make interesting specific comments; all these things seem to be systemic. I'm sure that the ratio of the lengths of my ring and index finger (a sexually dimorphic trait) did not change. I have a vivid memory of looking at the back of my hands while driving and feeling intensely uncomfortable with my "man hands", just around the time I started hormones. That thought never crossed my mind again, though, after a short time I felt fine with them and haven't been bothered by them since. I suppose they must have changed enough to relieve my anxiety while I was distracted by other more dramatic effects.

jfengel 7y ago

The photo shows her holding a pen. It's amazing that you can transplant something as complex as a hand and use it to manipulate something as delicately as writing. The photo doesn't show her wrists very clearly, but not only has the color matched, but I don't see any scarring. I'm sure it's there, but even so... it's just stunning how good this is.

zapdrive 7y ago
The hands were connected near the elbow. There's another picture further down.
usddddd 7y ago
It looks like the transplant attached the hands and forearms to the upper part of the recipients arm. She lost basically just below the elbow in the accident it seems.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

When I was younger, I used to routinely joke on the internet that "I have three shades: White, off-white and lobster red." I didn't really tan. I mostly went from cadaverous white to badly sunburned. I've taken a long strange journey of healing and one of the side effects is that I am now capable of tanning. So based on my experience, I will suggest that gut biome may be a factor here. It's less obvious than "female hormones" in a cross-gender transplant, but it more closely fits my experience of changes in skin function and color. For background info to help you understand the context: I have a form of cystic fibrosis, not diagnosed until my mid thirties. My maiden name is Irish in origin and discussion on CF lists years ago suggested that people with CF are "typically" very pale skinned with blonde hair. Irish families are the most likely to have more than one member with a diagnosis of CF and Irish people tend to be very pale and often don't tan well.

mkl 7y ago

> Hand donations are rare, because few families are willing to donate limbs fearing disfiguration of the body even though a prosthetic limb is fitted to the donor’s body. Can someone explain this? Is it an Indian thing? If I died and donated my hands, I would be proud for them to be missing in the casket. I can only see because two people donated their corneas.

staticautomatic 7y ago
Lots of cultures have strongly-held mystical beliefs about dead bodies, going back thousands of years. There are plenty of famous examples, even, like the fights over Patroclus and Hector's dead bodies in the Iliad.
vsskanth 7y ago
There is a stigma because some people believe your body needs to be whole during your last rites (Even though you cremate the body in the end if you're Hindu). This is pure superstition. This is gradually changing with increasing education and awareness among people, making organ donations socially acceptable and something to be proud of.
- pmarreck 7y ago
  > some people believe your body needs to be whole during your last rites (Even though you cremate the body in the end if you're Hindu). This is pure superstition It's not just superstition, it's easily defeated with reason: If this were true, then every innocent person who has to suffer an amputation due to an accident would be unjustly disadvantaged. It's similar to people who argue against gay marriage since kids aren't produced: This implies every heterosexual marriage without children is worthless
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > it's easily defeated with reason: If this were true, then every innocent person who has to suffer an amputation due to an accident would be unjustly disadvantaged How's that a defeat? Terrible things happen unjustly all the time. Every innocent person who has to suffer an amputation due to an accident already is unjustly disadvantaged; it's not like this is an impossible state of affairs. (Just ask them whether they'd prefer to have their appendages back!)

bilekas 7y ago

Wow.. Wow wow wow. I had no idea this was even remotely possible... I would never have imagine that the nervous system alone would be able to adjust. This is incredible. I'm really curious now if there have been other transplants like this before with similar results? > The nerve begins to send signals, it is called reinnervation, and the muscles function according to body needs. Also, is this just letting the body 're-connect' or is this some specific medical process to achieve ? Either way this is incredible!

hinkley 7y ago
Are you talking about the general case of attaching nerves or the specific case of the physiological changes here? From the article they seemed to be describing well known phenomena regarding peripheral nerves. The myelin sheath can survive detachment, the nerve does not. With finger re-attachment, a very talented surgeon reattaches the sheathes, and new nerves grow down the channel, at a rate of about an inch a month (mentioned in passing in the article). So for a finger, with some luck you should be able to feel your fingertips in a few months. The arms would have taken a year or more. (I can't imagine what that feels like, emotionally). There's also a lot of plasticity in the brain. I'd heard of cases where a badly seared finger has a patch of skin grafted from the side of another finger to restore tactile function. They move the skin patch with the nerves still attached, and at first your brain tells you that the side of your finger is being touched. With rehab your brain eventually believes that the sensation now happening to your thumb actually occured on your thumb. But she would have had to do this for the whole lower arm, twice.
- bilekas 7y ago
  Again.. I am blown away. > well known phenomena regarding peripheral nerves. This for starters has my mind blown, but I was curious if they were using techniques that were enhancing that. > new nerves grow down the channel, at a rate of about an inch a month Again, amazing! I guess I just never appreciated how amazing the body really is. I always take it for granted of course, but the nervous system for me was always like a webbing, that if broken could never grow back. Insane, thank you for the info! And again, credit to her and her physicians, nurses and donor. Amazing!

connectsnk 7y ago

I didnt know such surgeries could be performed in India. I didnt even know such surgeries were possible in the first place let alone being done in India

scarejunba 7y ago
Interestingly, not only can such surgeries be performed in India but some kinds of surgeries have better outcomes in India for cheaper prices than in America. I believe it's some kinds of heart surgeries that I saw the stats for.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  Surgeons who do lots of surgery are better than other surgeons who don't. This advantage dominates those of training, resources, years of experience, etc. It's no surprise that inexpensive surgeons in a populous nation would be the best.
  - ferzul 7y ago
    practice makes perfect
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
blntechie 7y ago
India has some very good doctors and hospitals but are generally unviable financially for most of the population. Hypothetically, if the doctors and health staff lost to the West and Middle East over the last 50 years remained, it would have much stronger reputation for great doctors. But that’s again a what-if thing.

zupreme 7y ago

After reading, I feel the need to know how, when, and why he died.

happy-go-lucky 7y ago
"She came to know later that Sachin, a B.Com student from Ernakulam’s Rajagiri College, had been declared brain dead that day after being involved in a bike accident — and that his family had agreed to donate his hands and other organs."

natch 7y ago

Site is currently hosting UI-hijacking ads that kick in after 15 seconds or so. Flagged.

pmarreck 7y ago
Agree. The story is good but this source is absolute trash. This is why people use devices like PiHoles and adblock.

scarejunba 7y ago

Genuinely blows my mind that hand transplants are possible.

happy-go-lucky 7y ago

Here's a video from the Institute where she underwent the transplantation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RjakQiWPDMk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RjakQiWPDMk

sxv 7y ago

The analyses and speculation in the article place too much emphasis on sex / gender and too little on general diversity of physical characteristics. But perhaps I am jumping to that conclusion because I regard India as having archaic, sexist modalities.

macewindu 7y ago
> I regard India as having archaic, sexist modalities. Unlike USA?

autonoshitbox 7y ago

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in my entire life.

justplay 7y ago

wow. I feels like I should also donate my body. I am really proud of those doctor and wishing alot of happiness to that family who donated there child body. As an indian and hindu, I can feel how big this means.

aaron695 7y ago

No one suspicious there is no footage of her gripping things? This is amazing, totally amazing, but you are not in a Sci-Fi movie. Her hands are quite limited. > Today, her handwriting almost matches her original Here is footage of her writing, but you don't see her initially gripping the pen. Certainly her hand writing will have changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1scH3riEc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1scH3riEc I get in India life is tough for many people so the media does all these great glossy stories that border on lies, it seems built into the system, individual facts are not as important as the story. But it's not that simple.

robocat 7y ago

Flagged: redirects to lottery won advert after a timeout on Android.

perilunar 7y ago
I got that too on Mac/Safari. Disabled JS and went back.

r00f 7y ago

Not sure why that should be surprise. Skin does not go light or dark randomly, it depends on the amount of melanin and other things body produces. If her natural skin is light, the skin of new hands lost all additional pigmentation over time and went to the body average levels.

steeve 7y ago

The article is impossible to read on mobile because of ads. After a few seconds it redirects to some shady website.

stared 7y ago

> Hand donations are rare, because few families are willing to donate limbs fearing disfiguration of the body even though a prosthetic limb is fitted to the donor’s body. In my opinion, this state of things is a strong argument for utilitarianism for organ transplantation[1]. For me, it is hard to find a measure in which an additional discomfort during a funeral[2] outweighs the discomfort of living with a life-altering disability (e.g. no hands) or well, dying (which affects their family members, friends, etc). [1] I support an option that people may personally opt-out of the system, meaning that they don't agree for their own body to be donated (and agree they won't be a recipient). [2] In many places closed-coffin funerals are a standard, regardless of the state of the deceased.

BrandoElFollito 7y ago
Opting out of the system would require to spend some time with the people these incredibly selfish people deny from a hope of a better life. That would need to be a strict oup out system, no questions asked to anyone if no opt out. Finally, the opt out system should be designed by the people who designed some gov sites (crazy captchas, scrollbar behaving erraticaly, confusing questions, pale on pale colors, internet explorer 6 required)