Shortly after his daughter was born in 1998, then-electrician Felix Gretarsson got electrocuted on the job in Iceland, causing doctors to amputate his arms.
Now, he’s able to hug his daughter — and grandkids — again, thanks to the world’s first double arm transplant.
After five years of waiting for the right donor, Gretarsson, now 49, received the daunting 15-hour operation in France in 2021.
He has surpassed every medical expectation throughout his recovery. Gretarsson can now walk his dog, brush his teeth and give high-fives — as demonstrated when he met Iceland’s president.
“I have feelings in every finger, in the hand,” Gretarsson said recently alongside his wife, Silvia, Friday on “Good Morning Britain.”
Of course, recovery has been a complicated one.
“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,” he told South West News Service.
It’s also still an ongoing process.
“It’s not fully developed. I was sweeping around the pool the other day and I didn’t realize when I got blisters until I saw the blood,” he told “Good Morning Britain.”
“The nerves are connected here somewhere under the collarbone and the nerves they kind of grow inside these tubes, so they connect my tubes to the donor’s tubes and the nerve inside the donor’s arm, they just dissipate with time — and then mine start to grow inside there,” he explained of the complicated process.
“In the beginning, there came a little bit of strength in the biceps and the triceps on the back and, obviously, the hand is the last,” he said. “The hand is the most complicated because there is so many little muscles and nerves, so I am able to almost close a fist on the right side. I can flicker them a little bit on the left.”
Although he knows it’s not for everyone, Gretarsson wants to raise awareness for people to consider donating not only their organs but their limbs as well.
“If people even had the discussion to the person sitting next to you, to your loved one: ‘What is your point of view about donating more than organs?’” he pondered to “Good Morning Britain.”
“I am a white, medium-sized man in France but it still took five years to find a donor,” Gretarsson said. “So I can only imagine minority groups or others — it’s difficult, but it can change so much.”
He still has frustrations in the midst of his recovery and adjustment, such as not having enough mobility to retrieve change in his pocket and requiring help when doing tasks like showering.
Even little, new things in life seem to catch him by surprise.
“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,” he recalled to SWNS about a recent excursion. “It was a very weird moment.”
But his main focus is simple: “There’s always a silver lining to everything,” said Gretarsson, who has even relocated to France with his wife.
“So many good things you can take from this — this is what has kept me going,” he continued. “So, I’m kind of living in a fairy-tale; there’s always something new.”
