Kochi: Amaresh and Yousif Hasan couldn’t control their tears as they thanked the relatives of Vinod and Ambili with folded hands.
They both received new leases on life thanks to the transplants done with the limbs harvested from the donors who died in road accidents.
Emotional scenes were witnessed when the kin caressed the “hands of their dear ones” for one last time as they were yet to come to terms with the sudden demise of Vinod and Ambili.
Amaresh (25), a native of Raichur in Karnataka, and Yousif Hasan Syed Al Suwaidi (29) hailing from Baghdad, Iraq, underwent hand transplants at the Amrita Hospital here six months back.
The transplanted hands of Amaresh belonged to 54-year-old Vinod, who died in a road accident at his native Kollam on January 4, while Yousif received the hands of 39-year-old Ambili from Alappuzha, who was declared brain-dead following a road mishap in February.
Vinod’s wife Sujatha and daughter Neethu visited Amaresh on Wednesday. Their hearts were filled with his memories and eyes full of tears as they caressed the hand.
"This is the same hand that toiled hard for us and fed us for all these years,” Sujatha said. An emotional Amaresh touched their feet and sought blessings.
It was also heart-touching when Class 7 student Ananthu, Ambili's son, who came along with his grandmother Valsala Kumari, kissed Yousif's transplanted hand.
Yousif at once embraced the teary-eyed boy with the hands of his mother and said with his voice cracking, "You've given me a new lease on life.”
Amaresh, an employee of a power supply company in Karnataka, lost both his hands in an electrical accident at his workplace in 2017. He underwent hand transplant surgery on January 5. The doctors successfully switched the hands, the part below the right elbow joint and the left hand below the shoulder, on to his body.
Dr. Subramania Iyer and Dr. Mohit Sharma, part of the expert team of the Centre for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery department, said the transplant was the third such successful surgery in the world and the first in Asia.
Yousif, a construction worker in Iraq, suffered an electric shock in April 2019 when he lost both hands. Since 2015, 11 persons have successfully underwent hand transplants at the Amrita Hospital.