Shreya Siddanagowda Makes Remarkable Recovery After Double Arm Transplant in India

In 2016, 19-year-old chemical engineering student Shreya Siddanagowda lost both her arms in a serious bus accident while travelling to college. According to the account of her medical journey, doctors initially told her that upper-limb transplantation was extremely rare in Asia. However, in 2017, a team at Amrita Hospital in Kochi took on the challenging procedure. Led by Dr. Subrahmania Iyer, the team included 20 reconstructive surgeons and 16 anaesthesiologists. The 13-hour operation used arms donated by Sachin, a 20-year-old college student. The procedure was described as Asia's first double upper-extremity transplant and the world's first male-to-female bilateral hand transplant.

The surgery was followed by an intensive rehabilitation process lasting nearly two years. Surgeons had to reconnect bones, blood vessels, tendons and nerves to help restore movement and sensation. Over the following three years, the transplanted limbs reportedly underwent gradual physical changes as Shreya's body adapted to them. One of the most significant milestones came when she regained fine finger movements and returned to university. She was eventually able to hand-write her engineering examinations, marking a remarkable step in her recovery.