Turkish surgeons removed both arms and legs from a patient who underwent what was touted as the world’s first quadruple limb transplant due to metabolic complications, the hospital said yesterday.
Fifty-two doctors from Ankara’s Hacettepe University Hospital performed the transplant on Friday, attaching two arms and two legs to Sevket Cavdar.
Doctors had first removed one leg from the patient after his heart and vascular system failed to sustain the limb and then the other leg and two arms.
“The science council (of the hospital) decided to remove the organs one by one due to additional metabolic complications in the following process,” the hospital said ina statement.
“Our patient is now in the intensive care unit. The critical process is still continuing,” it added.
The doctors declined to share any details about the patient. The operation came on the heels of the country’s first-ever face transplant at another Turkish university hospital.