Félix Gretarsson was 25 years old when an 11,000-volt electric shock tore off both his arms while he was working on a high-voltage line in Iceland.
He spent three months in a coma. He also survived a liver transplant. And for years he lived without hands, until in 2007 he heard about Jean-Michel Dubernard, the French surgeon who had spent decades perfecting hand transplants. Félix sold what he had in Iceland and moved to Lyon with his wife Silvia, prepared to wait as long as necessary.
He waited 13 years. On January 13, 2021, four surgical teams worked for 15 hours at Edouard Herriot Hospital to complete the first double arm and shoulder transplant in history. Weeks later, already recovering, Félix said something simple that sums it all up: he likes his new hands because they resemble the ones he had lost.
