DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 04th Nov, 2018) Nine-year-old Bana Nizar Hassan from Sudan has become the first child to receive a kidney transplant in Dubai.
The surgery was performed at Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital by a joint medical team from Al Jalila Children’s, and Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences. The team was led by Mohammed bin Rashid Univerity's prominent transplant surgeons Dr. David Hickey, Professor of Surgery, and Dr. Farhad Janahi, Assistant Professor of Surgery.
A total of nine government and health authorities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi worked together seamlessly to ensure that the kidney from a deceased donor in Abu Dhabi was transplanted within the necessary 12-hour window. In addition to Al Jalila Children’s and the university, Dubai Healthcare City Authority, the Ministry of Health and Prevention and its National Transplant Committee, Al Jalila Foundation, Abu Dhabi Police, Abu Dhabi Health Services Co. (SEHA), Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and Sheikh Khalifa Medical City were involved.
Bana, who was born with just one kidney - a condition called renal agenesis, which affects around one in 1,000 children - was being treated with medication at Al Jalila Children’s, and was facing eventual dialysis or transplant. Now, thanks to the pre-emptive kidney transplant during a successful five-hour surgery, Bana is able to carry on with her life.
The lead surgeon, Dr. David Hickey, former director of the National Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programme in Ireland, has performed over 2000 transplants, trained transplant surgeons from around the world, and published over 130 peer reviewed scientific papers.
Dr. Abdulla Al Khayat, CEO of Al Jalila Children’s, said "We have just witnessed a defining moment in the history of Dubai’s paediatric healthcare system and Al Jalila Children’s is proud to have become a contributor to that history.
"Apart from this being an incredible medical achievement, what we’ve seen is exemplary cooperation between ten different entities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that came together in virtually no time to make this surgery possible. This is the first of many to come and we are on track to ensuring that Dubai is the hub of paediatric healthcare in the region by contributing to UAE’s 2021 vision for the health sector," he added.
In turn, Dr. Amer Sharif, Vice Chancellor of Mohammed bin Rashid University and CEO of Dubai Healthcare City Authority's education Sector, said, "We are proud of the efforts of the joint team from the university and Al Jalila Children’s, our clinical academic affiliate, who were involved in this historic moment in UAE healthcare."
For his part, Nizar Hassan Yousif, father of young Bana, said, "We have been suffering for nine years now - we knew that there was something wrong with my daughter’s kidneys before she was even born. "What we feel now is beyond words; it feels like we all have a new life to start together. It is also extremely overwhelming for us to see so many people from different entities across UAE come together to treat my baby; thank you is not enough for them.
