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Al Jalila Children’s hospital performs Dubai’s first paediatric kidney transplant

A total of nine government and health authorities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi worked together to ensure that the kidney from a donor in Abu Dhabi was transplanted within the necessary 12-hour window

By Staff writer
Dr Farhad Janahi, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Dr David Hickey, Professor of Surgery pictured with nine-year-old Bana Nizar Hassan.
Dr Farhad Janahi, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Dr David Hickey, Professor of Surgery pictured with nine-year-old Bana Nizar Hassan.

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, the UAE’s first and only dedicated children’s hospital, and Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU).

The team was led by MBRU’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 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 MBRU, Dubai Healthcare City Authority (DHCA), the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) 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.

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.”

Almost two years since it opened its doors to patients, Al Jalila Children’s, a 200-bed, state-of-the-art paediatric facility, has managed to achieve several milestones.

With more than 28 fully operational clinics that provide the best-in-class paediatric healthcare, two leading educational programmes, and several ground breaking paediatric research studies, the ambitious hospital is firmly on its way to achieving its vision to be a leading paediatric hub in the region and the world.

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