Pioneer hand-swap patient picks up grandson at last

Hand transplant patient Mark Cahill with granddaughter, Dakota, two years after his operation.

The 53-year-old suffered chronic gout in both hands for 10 years, and later developed an infection in his right hand that left it completely paralysed – meaning he had to give up work as a pub landlord.

But in 2012, just three months after he put his name on a transplant list, he received a call that changed his life, telling him a hand had become available.

Two years on from the ground-breaking, eight-hour operation at Leeds General Infirmary, father-of-one Mr Cahill is now strong enough to cuddle his grandchildren – five-year-old Thomas and seven-month-old Dakota.

Mr Cahill, of Halifax, said: “I am definitely over 50 per cent better and heading to 75 per cent though I will never get the feeling back completely.

“I don’t have to rely on my wife so much now. I can wash myself in the bath.

“I can pick my grandchildren up, which is a marvellous  feeling.

“I might go back to a driving a manual car eventually.”

He added: “I can open tins and tie my own tie, use a mobile phone.

“Shoelaces I can do just about though they are not easy.”

Mr Cahill was chosen for the surgery after Leeds Teaching Hospitals announced it was looking for potential candidates for hand or arm transplants in 2011. He underwent a series of health checks and assessments before the surgery.