Two years after the transplant, my arm is more efficient. I am able to grasp the handle with my whole hand and lift a not-too-heavy bag – said Renata Wrzosek from Węgrów in an interview with PAP, whose arm transplanted by surgeons from the hospital in Trzebnica.
Renata Wrzosek lost her arm in September 2008 due to traumatic injuries sustained in a car accident near Kazimierz Dolny. Then she was transported to the hospital of St. Jadwiga Śląska in Trzebnica, but the hand could not be saved, it had to be amputated.
“I couldn’t accept it. While still in the hospital, I decided to regain my lost arm thanks to the transplant. I knew it was possible, because almost at the same time it was transplanted in Trzebnica by the hand of Damian Szwedo from Wrocław, ”he recalls.
Szwedo was operated on in September 2008 a few days before Renata Wrzosek was brought to Trzebnica. Local surgeons transplanted his right hand, which was donated by a 53-year-old woman. Szwedo had lost his own hand seven years earlier in carpentry work. The circular saw cut off his hand at the height of his wrist.
The doctors from Trzebnica began to perform more and more bold transplants of the upper limbs. In 2009, they transplanted the entire arm to the then 30-year-old Mirosław Borodziuk from Mysłowice. He lost his arm at the age of only two, and regained it after 28 years. It was then the third such transplant in the world.
“I was waiting for my chance all the time, I believed it would be possible,” says Renata Wrzosek, an inhabitant of Węgrów near Mińsk Mazowiecki. It became possible exactly two years after the accident, in September 2010, doctors informed her that they had a donor for her.
“It was a difficult period in my life, because a few weeks earlier, on August 10, 2010, my husband died of a stroke” – he adds. In her opinion, it was to some extent related to the car accident that they both had experienced two years earlier. Renata’s husband was then in a coma for a month.
In Trzebnica, her hand and arm were transplanted (10 cm above the elbow). Initially, the limb was inert, supported on a stiffening scaffold. There was no feeling in her, the wrist did not move.
“Since then, thanks to convalescence and rehabilitation, the transplanted arm has become more and more efficient. There is a feeling in her, I feel warm and cold. They can grasp the handle with their whole hand and lift a bag that is not too heavy. It’s easier for me to get dressed, put on a dress, that’s a big change for me, ”she recalls.
He can’t unscrew the jar lid yet. But she can hold something, and what is very important to her – drive a car. “I was driving right after the accident. When I lost my hand, I decided that I would not change it, that I would do whatever is still possible. “
Renata Wrzosek is still undergoing rehabilitation involving complex exercises and massages. This is to improve the hand even more and provide it with the best blood supply. She exercises herself and with the help of a rehabilitator. He comes to Trzebica for inspections every three months.
“I am in touch with Mirosław Borodziuk all the time. We inform each other how to exercise and compare what progress we are making and what stage we are at. Every move is important, everything has to be practiced, ”says Wrzosek.
Further improvement of the hand also depends on regeneration of the radial nerve, the thickest nerve of the brachial plexus. It runs from the triceps muscle to the back of the hand, where it is divided into 5 dorsal nerves of the fingers. Usually it takes five years for it to fully regrow.
Renata Wrzosek must regularly take drugs to protect against the rejection of the limb by the body, although in smaller doses than at the beginning, right after the transplant. He has to be careful with an infection, because he has less immunity because of it.
“So far, my research results are very good. In the last two years, I have only had a cold. I can say that despite my personal tragedy, I am happy, ”she emphasizes. She adds that she is grateful to the specialists from Trzebnica and the family of the deceased woman for agreeing to have her hand removed for transplantation.
Renata Wrzosek is one of the main characters in the new series “Operation ŻYCIE”, which will be available from November 15th every Thursday at 22.35:12 PM. The script for it was developed by Robert Kęder, who has had a liver transplant for XNUMX years. Its heroes are patients waiting for a transplant (or after transplant), as well as their families, doctors and transplant coordinators.
Zbigniew Wojtasiński (PAP)
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