Meet 54-year-old Karl Merk. He lost his arms in a farming accident six years ago.
Then three months ago, on July 25, 2008, in a 15-hour operation with 40 surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and other support staff, Karl received the world’s first complete double arm transplant.
Photo by Lennart Preiss
There were five medical teams for the operation: Two teams each removed one arm from the donor, while two others prepared Karl to receive them. The fifth team removed veins from the donor, which had to be taken as part of the transplant to allow for a better blood flow. Surgeons then joined the bone of the donor’s upper arm to Karl’s shoulder sockets before connecting arteries and veins. (But since new nerves have to grow, it could be several years before Karl gets any feeling in his fingertips.)
Still, isn’t that amazing!
(The donor, who had died in a road crash shortly before the surgery, was a 19-year-old from Augsburg in Bavaria.)
I would think it took enormous courage on the part of the donor’s family members to consent to the limb transplant based on the wishes of their loved one who died. They must have realized his spirit would live on in his tremendous life-enhancing gift…and they found comfort in that.
As one family member of another donor said to me, “We understand nothing will bring my brother back, but knowing his organs are in other people is a good feeling.”
Every year, hundreds of men, women and children wait anxiously for a phone call that will save, or enhance, their lives. They wait for a cornea, a heart, a kidney, a lung, a liver, a pancreas, bone, skin, an arm…and maybe one day, a leg?
You can improve and save lives by choosing to be an organ and tissue donor. And in that, your family may find comfort that someone else has hope for a better life.
Prior to the surgery Karl Merk was thoroughly checked out physically, and had psychological counseling to ensure he was mentally stable enough to cope with the procedure. What a new lease on life he has been given!
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
Read an excerpt now
TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James