A man who underwent the world’s first double arm and shoulder transplant 16 months ago has made a miraculous recovery and is now able to work out at the gym and hug his grandchildren.
Felix Gretarsson, 49, from Lyon, France was forced to have his arms amputated after he was electrocuted at work in 1998 in Kópavogur, Iceland.
After decades without them, the Icelandic native managed to convince a surgeon to perform a double arm and shoulder transplant in a gruelling 15 hour surgery in January 2021.
The grandfather has shocked surgeons with his incredible progress, and is now able to brush his teeth, walk and throw balls for his dog and hug his kids with his transplanted arms.
Felix Gretarsson, 49, from Lyon, France was forced to have his arms amputated after he was electrocuted at work in 1998 in Kópavogur, Iceland
The grandfather has shocked surgeons with his incredible progress, and is now able to brush his teeth, walk and throw balls for his dog and hug his kids with his transplanted arms. Pictured hugging his granddaughter
Felix has also been able to hug his daughter for the first time since she was a three-month-old baby, and cuddle his grandchildren for the first time.
He said: ‘After watching them as little babies crying and being unable to hold them it was indescribable.
‘Certain little things like holding my wife and my kids, but also the perception of my hands.
‘Just I was just this morning we took our dogs for a walk and I was putting my hand out the window and feeling the wind on my hand, it was very weird moment.
‘Being able to scratch without rubbing yourself on some furniture – you don’t realise when you lose your hands how often a day you need to touch your nose or your eyes or scratch your head, and now I’m just constantly doing it.’
‘It’s my 50th birthday next week so I’ve been going berserk trying to clean the residence for the party in the garden!’
‘At some point you just feel you are ready to do it, the movement starts to come but there is no strength at the beginning, just a little fraction of nerves in the muscle so I can contract the muscles to a degree.’
After decades without them, the Icelandic native managed to convince a surgeon to perform a double arm and shoulder transplant in a gruelling 15 hour surgery in January 2021. Pictured before
Felix has also been able to hug his daughter for the first time since she was a three-month-old baby, and cuddle his grandchildren for the first time.
While he could use his feet to drive the car prior to the operation, he used a steering wheel with his hands for the first time.
He said: ‘I am just taking my foot off when I’m driving very slowly when there is no danger and I am managing to hold onto the steering wheel and swing the car back and forth over a little distance.
‘The first time I let go of floor steering wheel on the floor, that was awesome.’
To build up the muscles in his new arms, Felix has now started to go to the gym to exercise.
‘I’m not putting any serious weight on, I’m trying to put on muscles but at the same time growing nerves,’ he said.
He started to notice temperature in his arms and hands a few months ago, and the sensation gets clearer for him every day.
‘At some point I was a little bit confused if hot or cold but now if my put my hands under the sink I can feel the temperature instantly.
Felix Gretarsson rehabbing in at the Hopital Edouard Herriot in France afterthe world’s first double arm transplant
Felix Gretarsson with his new arms and his wife in Lyon, France. To build up the muscles in his new arms, Felix has now started to go to the gym to exercise
Last month Felix (pictured with his granddaughter) held a mobile phone for the first time in his life, prior to the transplant, he would lick or use his nose to tap the screen.
Felix was electrocuted while trying to fix a powerline and both his arms were set on fire in 1998
‘I’m using the movement to command the nerves to go there, that’s the basics of my rehabilitation.
‘It’s super challenging and frustrating as hell constantly trying to do something and the muscles don’t move, but the reward is incredible when all of a sudden these movements start to manifest.’
Last month Felix held a mobile phone for the first time in his life, prior to the transplant, he would lick or use his nose to tap the screen.
‘We have this marble on our kitchen counter and I just put my arms up on the table and I felt the cold with my hand, it was amazing.
‘The arms down to the wrists feel well attached and I can feel them, and I can feel every part of the hand but it is still not perfect.
‘The hands have a much more complicated nervous system than the arms, you touch something with your elbow or tip of finger and it’s a completely different sensation.
‘I am still progressing I have hope that I will get much more out of this.’
Felix Gretarsson before the accident that caused his arms to be amputated, he was electrocuted in 1998
Doctors told Felix that nerves grow on average a millimetre every day, so estimate they’ll reach his elbow in under a year, and his hands in about two. He is pictured hugging
Felix was electrocuted while trying to fix a powerline and both his arms were set on fire in 1998.
He had 54 operations while in a three-month-long coma – and doctors had to remove both of his arms to save his life.
When he woke from an induced coma three months later, he was relieved – despite his injuries and the loss of his arms – to discover he had not been completely paralysed by the fall.
Seven months later, he was moved to a rehabilitation centre where he became reliant on other substances after his pain medication was reduced.
‘I had smoked some weed before but this is where it kind of went just took over,’ he recalled.
Gretarsson lost his career, his long-time girlfriend, and couldn’t see his two young daughters, Rebekka and Diljá, now 27 and 23.
He spent the money he’d won from his former company’s insurers on his addiction after an unsuccessful stint in a specialist drug rehab.
Felix tracked down a world-renowned surgeon and begged him to perform a never-before-attempted transplant – moving half way across the world to be in line.
On the 23 year anniversary of his accident, he had a double arm and shoulder transplant in a 15 hour surgery, in January this year.
Thanks to hundreds of hours of rehabilitation work, six months on he could move his elbows while in water.
After nine months, he announced to his followers on social media that he could even move his fingers which was not expected until he was two years post-op.
The sensation started coming back into his palm in early October, and he started to get the feeling that he could move his fingers.
He said: ‘It is a gradual process, the sensation is little bit different, it’s different nerves.
‘The sensation is coming quicker than the functionality.
‘In the beginning I was not quite sure if I was moving the finger or I was moving something else and the finger was tagging along.’
Gradually his middle finger and ring finger started to move with his index finger, which left his surgical team gobsmacked.
‘They were giggling like small boys, taking videos because they couldn’t believe I was moving the fingers.’
‘Now I can move all three of them and I can move the wrist towards me.
‘When we did this operation it was if I can move my elbow the operation is a success, now I’m moving the elbow, shoulders and fingers and we are just nine months into the process.
‘It’s much, much quicker and better than we thought.’
The former electrician now has very strong feelings in both his arms and is making amazing progress every day.
Felix added that he loved his new found independence.
‘I can go to a café and I don’t have to ask somebody to go into my pocket to get the change.
‘To take a shower and just not be dependent on people in these daily tasks.
‘I love DIY, I was an electrician because I loved working with my hands and I still collect tools.
‘So being able to use them and do some DIY, that’s my passion.’
Before his accident Felix was an electrician.
He put together the compilation video of his accomplishments to present at a medical conference and demonstrate his progress.
Felix posted it on his Instagram where it since went viral.
He said: ‘I’m hoping at some point in the future there are a lot of people that could use an operation like that and for them to have a place where it’s all there what to expect.
‘That was missing when I was in the journey, they had done some hand transplants and at least two or three where they went above the elbow and of course nobody has gone and taken the shoulder!
‘When we did the operation the goal was to flex my right elbow, they weren’t hopeful I could flex the left side – but now I’m moving elbows, shoulders, wrists and fingers.
‘So I’m kind of living in a fairy-tale, there’s always something new.’
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