Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
Turkey’s first double arm transplant patient has celebrated over a decade of being able to hug his children after losing his own arms in a tragic accident.
Cihan Topal, 38, who is a farmer in the district of Efeler in the southwestern Turkish province of Aydin and is married with two children, lost his arms below the elbow to a silage cutter in 2008.
But he got a second chance at life when he applied to Akdeniz University (AU) for transplantation.
The two arms of Fatih Demirel, 23, who lost his life in a traffic accident in the district of Milas in the southwestern Turkish province of Mugla, were transferred to Cihan in 2010, after a seven-hour operation at the AU Hospital.
Cengiz, who had a double arm transplant by Dr Omer Ozkan and his team from AU Faculty of Medicine, Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, went down in the history of medicine as the first double-arm transplant patient in Turkey.
Cihan said, “If I can caress the hair of my 14-year-old daughter Necile and my eight-year-old son Omer Ozkan who I named after my doctor, and hug them today, I owe it to organ donation. Thanks to organ donation, I have been living with someone else’s hands for 11 years. I got hold of my life again.
“The best thing in my life is to be able to hug my children again.”
Reminding that thousands of patients are waiting in line for organ donation, Cihan stated that organ donation saves lives, and he thanked Dr Omer Ozkan and his team.
Stating that organ donation in Turkey has increased, Dr Omer Ozkan said, “As there are such beautiful examples, the number of transplants increases. In fact, we are a sensitive nation, but it is necessary to remind people of this frequently.
He added, “At first, we thought about how the patient would feel psychologically because the arm was someone else’s arm.
“The patient’s blood is now circulating in the veins of this arm, the feeling is now his own feelings, and his movements are his own. These are his arms, not someone else’s anymore. The patients are also aware of it.”
