LYON (The Guardian) — French Armenian surgeon Aram Gazarian led the first double-arm-and-shoulder transplantation operation in Lyon.
The Icelandic man who got the transplant is recovering well after the operation, two decades after the accident that cost him both limbs, doctors have said.
They said it was still uncertain how much mobility Felix Gretarsson, 48, will recover following the operation earlier this month in the southeastern French city of Lyon.
But “giving a little to somebody who was missing so much, that’s already a lot” Aram Gazarian, the lead surgeon in the operation, told a news conference on January 22.
“If he can recover the possibility to actively bend his elbow, that would be a life-changer,” he said.
On January 12, 1998, Gretarsson, an electrician, was working on a high-voltage power line when an 11,000-volt surge burned his hands and flung him to the icy ground.
