The first ever quadruple limb transplant was performed in Turkey. Sevket Cavdar, age 27, received two arm and two leg transplants after an electric shook incident left him limbless. 50 doctors performed the transplants during a 20 hour long surgery. The limbs were donated by a 40-year-old person who was declared brain dead. Find out more details after the jump.
Doctors in Turkey performed what is thought to be the world’s first quadruple limb transplant.
Sevket Cavdar, 27, received a pair of arms and legs after a team of about 50 doctors at a university hospital in Ankara attached the limbs during a 20 hour surgery, the Associated Press reports.
The man lost his limbs during an electric shock incident in 1998, according to the the Hurriyet Daily News.
The news service also reports the limbs were taken from a 40-year-old patient who was pronounced brain dead days after being involved in an accident. The family decided to donate the organs.
Doctors did not report on Cavdar’s condition, but said they remain optimistic for now.
“We have good results but maybe we will lose all of the limbs,” Serdar Nasir, a surgeon, told Sky News. “Maybe (we’ll) lose only one or two, we have to wait, but I think for now we have good results.”
The patient will still need to be monitored closely.
“The blood and plasma defusion are still continuing for our patient to overcome the critical next 24 hours,” professor Murat Tuncer said, according to the AFP.
Cengiz Gur, a 25-year-old patient, whose face was damaged during an explosion, received the donor’s face during a separate surgery on Feb. 24, the Harriyet Daily News reports.
Doctors at another Turkey hospital previously attempted a triple limb transplant, the Associated Press reports. They later had to remove a leg “due to tissue incompatibility.”
