After they planted two new hands that changed color
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After they planted two new hands that changed color

Doctors in India were surprised when a girl's two transplanted hands turned into a color similar to the color of her original skin. In 2017, Shriya Siddanagoda, a 19-year-old girl at the time, was transplanted into Amrita Hospital in Kerala region, after she had an accident that resulted in the amputation of both hands.

The girl was implanted under her elbows, a palm with two forearms belonging to a newly-deceased man. If we set aside the slightly darker color of the transplanted hands compared to the girl's skin color, the operation was a resounding success.

At the age of 21, the girl's hands turned lighter similar to the color of her original skin, which baffled her doctors, because such cases are few and occurred long ago. Doctors are closely following the girl's condition, hoping to publish a research paper on her. Their current hypothesis centers on the existence of a link between color change and melanin secretion (melanin is a natural pigment that gives color to human skin and hair), and the corresponding hypothesis are that the color of the transplanted hand changes over time without relation to melanin.

After they implanted her two new hands that changed their color - the color of the two transplanted hands of a girl turned into a color similar to the color of her original skin - melanin is a pigment that gives color to the skin - sedanagoda

“We hope to publish studies on two cases of transplanted hands in the scientific journal, but it will take time,” says Dr. Subramania Iyer, head of the plastic surgery department at AMRITA. We are following the change in color in Siddanagoda, but we need more evidence to understand the change in the shape of the hands and fingers.

There is a case of an Afghan soldier who underwent a hand transplant who also witnessed a change in the color of his skin, but he died last week and we were not able to follow him closely. ”

Fewer than 100 hand transplants have been performed worldwide in the past 25 years and only 9 of them have been cases of upper arm transplants, so doctors don't have much information on the subject. In this particular operation, the transplant was from a male donor to a female recipient, which complicates the matter, even more, the surgeons say.

The nearly successful first operation was carried out in 1998, of a New Zealand man named "Clint Hallam" who lost his hand in a chainsaw accident in prison. The transplanted hand was later cut off when Clint Hallam stopped taking an immunosuppressant while running from the police because of his involvement in yet another scam (long, bizarre story).

The hand transplant is very complex compared to other implants. The Siddanagoda surgery lasted 13 hours and demanded a team of 20 surgeons and a team of 16 anesthetists. Conversely, a heart transplant takes 4 to 6 hours.

Regardless of the change in the color of the skin, Siddanagoda was very happy with the results. She will soon enter the university to study economics after passing the entrance exam that she took in writing and wrote it with her hand!

“I don't know how the transformation happened, but I feel like these two hands are my original hands,” Siddanagoda says. The color of the skin was very dark after the surgery, and although it did not affect me, the color of the skin today is similar to my normal skin color.