A DAD can finally hug his wife and son again after getting a miraculous hand transplant from an anonymous donor.
Mike Davies feared he’d never enjoy the simple pleasure of embracing his loved ones again after his arms and legs were amputated in 2018.
Mike Davies lost his limbs after experiencing a Christmas Eve ‘chill’ in 2017Credit: Mike Davies
He later underwent a miraculous hand transplant and can finally huge his wife and sonCredit: Mike Davies
The 66-year-old, from , , still does not know whether he has male or female hands after his transplant – as the identity of his donor is a closely guarded secret.
But he wants the family – and the incredible team of at the UK Hand and Upper Limb Transplant Service – to know that he is immensely grateful for his new .
Mike told The Sun: “I’m living a permanent eureka moment.
“I was utterly helpless without my hands. I couldn’t put my socks on, do up my buttons or feed myself. I couldn’t do anything
“But the one thing I was looking forward to the most after the transplant was hugging my wife and my son.
“I went over five years without being able to hug any of my family.
“When you hug someone and you don’t have hands, you are putting your stumps around them and it feels incomplete.
“It felt very different and wrong. It was a bit inhuman.
“When you have hands, it completes that hug – it becomes whole. After the transplant I could suddenly hug again and be intimate.
“Even just holding my wife’s hand while walking along the pavement was magical. To be able to do that again was lovely.”
Explaining how the transplant worked, Mike said: “Someone dies and gives up their arms.
“The arms are brought into the hospital for the recipient.
“For me, Leeds General Infirmary (where the UK Hand and Upper Limb Transplant Service is based) had to book out two theatres all day.
“One theatre was for receiving the donor’s arms and one theatre was for me.
“I still don’t know who the donor was. I don’t even know if they are male or female hands.
“But I’m so grateful to the donor’s family. We are all automatically signed up to the organ transplant donor list, however it’s the grieving family that often makes the final decision.
“That’s a tough decision to make. There was a grieving family who were brave enough to say, ‘Yes, have these hands’ after their family member had just passed away.
“It’s a wonderful thing to say.”
Mike was diagnosed with meningitis and sepsisCredit: Mike Davies
The illnesses ‘poisoned’ his limbs and he was forced to have them amputated in 2018Credit: Mike Davies
He went more than five years without being able to embrace his familyCredit: Mike Davies
Mike says doctors told his family that he wouldn’t make it three times, but he pulled throughCredit: Mike Davies
Mike originally lost his limbs after he came down with a ‘chill’ on Eve in 2017.
He said: “I got colder and colder and went to bed. When I came down the stairs in the evening my wife said I looked like a blue ghost.
“We didn’t think it was meningitis but we knew it was more than a cold. I was very worried and I knew something was wrong.
“I went to hospital and then had 10 weeks in and out of intensive care. I was on the brink of death.
“It turned out that I had meningitis followed by sepsis. My wife and son, who was 21 at the time, were told three times that I was not going to make it. But I did.”
The moment you have a hand transplant those hands become yours straight away
Mike Davies
Mike was put in an induced coma and by the time he came out of it his limbs had turned black.
He said: “They were dead and effectively poisonous to me.
“The only way I could get better was to have them cut off.
“One week was the leg removal and the next was the hands’ removal.
“I remember sitting in my hospital bed afterwards thinking, ‘This is real’. I just wanted to be the best version of myself I could be and didn’t want to be a burden to my family.
“I just felt relief. It was a turning point, and everything started to get better after that.”
KNOW THE SIGNS
During the amputation process one of Mike’s surgeons told him that hand transplants are now an option.
Mike followed up on the surgeon’s tip after leaving the hospital and signed up with the transplant centre in , undergoing screening to ensure he was psychologically ready for new hands.
There have been cases in the past when a patient has asked for their new hands to be removed after psychologically rejecting them.
Know the signs of meningitis and septicaemia
Meningitis is inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord – the meninges.
Septicaemia is blood poisoning caused by the same germs as meningitis and is life-threatening. It can occur with or without meningitis.
Both meningitis and septicaemia can kill in hours, so it is critical to know the symptoms so you can act fast.
Symptoms can appear in any order and not all of them show. For example, the meningitis rash does not always appear.
It can be hard to tell meningitis/septicaemia apart from other common bugs.
The symptoms marked with a * indicate those that are more specific to meningitis/septicaemia and are rarer with common bugs.
Symptoms of both septicaemia and meningitis
- Fever and/or vomiting
- Very sleepy, vacant or difficult to wake
- Confused/delirious*
- A rash, which can be anywhere on the body*
Additional symptoms of meningitis
- Severe headache
- Seizures
- Dislike of bright lights
- Stiff neck*
Additional symptoms of septicaemia
- Breathing fast/breathlessness
- Pale or mottled skin
- Limb/muscle/joint pain, which may come with stomach pain or diarrhoea *
- Cold hands, feet or shivering*
Source: Meningitis Research Foundation
No patients at the UK Hand and Upper Limb Transplant Service have psychologically rejected their transplanted hands due to extensive pre-surgery psychological profiling.
A study on how the centre achieved this feat was presented at the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons’ (BAPRAS) Scientific Meeting last month in .
Explaining the phenomenon of psychological transplant rejections, Mike said: “When you think about what you are doing with your hands, some of the things are very intimate.
“For example, how can you hug your child when you think you are using someone else’s hands?
“But the answer is that the moment you have the hand transplant those hands become your hands straight away.”
His life changed when he hugged his wife and could hold her hand while walking down the streetCredit: Mike Davies
With superflu on the rise, Mike wants to warn others to take any symptoms seriouslyCredit: Mike Davies
He says as soon as he woke up from the surgery, he thought of them as his handsCredit: Mike Davies
Mike underwent his transplant at the centre in 2023 and quickly learnt how to move his new hands.
He said: “When I came around I saw these protective casts on my arms and all I could see was a couple of fingers poking out of the end.
“I thought, ‘Those are my fingers’ – I saw the potential.
“I then worked with a physiotherapist to increase my movement in the fingers.
“Over the next few months I increased the range of movement in my fingers. Now I can juggle.
“I used to juggle before the amputations and I’ve now got three balls back in the air again.”
With this winter, Mike wants to warn others to be on the lookout for any unusual or severe .
He said: “My advice is to go with your gut.
“If you think you have something more than a bad cold, go on the meningitis.org website and check the symptoms there.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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