French-Armenian doctor Aram Gazarian leads world's first double-arm-and-shoulder transplantation surgery

French-Armenian surgeon Aram Gazarian led a groundbreaking surgery of double-arm-and-shoulder transplantation, enabling an Icelandic man, who lost both arms in a work accident to recover the parts of the body after more than two decades, The Guardian reports.

The patient is said to be recovering well after the operation, 23 years 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 told a news conference on Friday.

“If he can recover the possibility to actively bend his elbow, that would be a life-changer,” he said.

On 12 January, 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.

He sustained multiple fractures and internal injuries, and went into a three-month coma during which surgeons amputated both arms.

He underwent several more operations, including a liver transplant.

When hand transplant pioneer Jean-Michel Dubernard, based in Lyon, visited Reykjavik for a conference, Gretarsson asked him whether it would be possible to replace the lost limbs.

The operation was “his biggest dream”, Gretarsson’s wife Sylwia told Friday’s news conference, adding that she herself never felt that the operation was truly necessary as he “wasn’t missing anything”.

It took years to find suitable donors, during which some 50 medical staff in total became involved in the preparations for the operation.

Four surgical teams were involved to minimise the transition time between donor and recipient.