British woman who lost all her limbs in Spain asked if she would accept male hands as a transplant

A British woman hoping for a rare two-hand transplant after contracting a horrific infection in Spain was asked if she would accept limbs from a man or from a black person.

Kim Smith lost all of her limbs after contracting sepsis following a common urinary tract infection while on holiday in the Alicante region five years ago.

Before the 61-year-old could get on the waiting list for hand transplant surgery, she needed to complete a year of blood work, psychological testing and clinical questionnaires.

Smith told the olive press he was asked if he would accept the hands of a man or a black person.

He said the questions were standard procedure before being accepted on the waiting list and he wanted to raise awareness about sepsis and the process of having hand transplant surgery.

“A man’s hands wouldn’t suit me, they’re too big and muscular, I’m only 5-foot-2 and I used to have very small and tiny hands,” Smith said.

“I get stared at enough for not having hands and I really don’t want to be stared at with black hands on a white woman’s body anymore. It’s not racist, it’s what suits me.”

Smith said he used a chart of different teas to show doctors which color he preferred.

“It ranged from milky to light brown,” he said.

“Despite how desperate I am to have hands again, I don’t want to accept anything, they have to feel good.”

Kim had fallen ill while she and her husband Steve, from Milton Keynes, were on holiday on the Costa Blanca in November 2017.

They had plans to spend Christmas there, but one day while visiting the historic town of Sax, he felt a pang of pain in his lower back.

She went to the Elda Hospital where they did some X-rays, but the doctors dismissed her, telling her that she had no breaks or fractures.

The next day he went to see another doctor, who tested him for a urine infection and, after confirming this, prescribed a course of antibiotics.

But that night at 4 a.m. she was in so much pain that she was rushed to the hospital again, where doctors told her husband she “only had six hours to live.”

She actually thought she was “going to die” and was put into an induced coma for nine weeks, three weeks at her local hospital at Milton Keynes Hospital.

When she finally woke up, the surgeons told her that her hands and legs would have to be amputated because they had gone “completely black and dead” from sepsis.

After major surgery, he spent six months in recovery.

He is now near the top of a waiting list for a two-hand transplant at Leeds General Infirmary, the only hospital in the UK that can perform the surgery.

Doctors will need to do a whole blood match to find Smith’s new hands.

The former hairstylist who used to cook every day and host dinner parties every week said she couldn’t wait to get back in the kitchen once she got her new hands.

Smith said the prospect of regaining independence again was his main motivation.

“Just realizing that I could go back to doing what I loved to do is enough to keep me going every day,” she said.

Kim has started an online community awareness page, Kim’s Chance, where she shares her journey with thousands of followers.

He has also set up a support group for people with sepsis in his hometown of Milton Keynes.

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