UAE | Health

Medical official denies kidney was removed

The Shaikh Khalifa Medical City yesterday denied a mother's claim that her child's kidney was removed.

  • By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:00 August 5, 2007
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Ahmed Kutty/Gulf News
  • Four-and-half-year-old Noora Al Ameri's mother claims her kidney was removed at Khalifa Hospital in Abu Dhabi during a tumour operation, without her approval.

Abu Dhabi: The Shaikh Khalifa Medical City yesterday denied a mother's claim that her child's kidney was removed.

Dr Kenneth Ouriel, CEO of the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), told Gulf News he is sure after studying the pathology report that the kidney was not removed. "I am 99 per cent sure that kidney was not removed. Only a tumour was removed in the surgery."

Gulf News reported on Wednesday that A. Abdullah Al Ameri, an Emirati mother, said she will sue SKMC for removing her daughter Noora's kidney without her consent.

Noora's mother said her daughter underwent a surgery to remove a tumour above her kidney, when she was 24 days old.

'Organ may have shrunk'

Dr Ouriel earlier told Gulf News he felt the vessels may have been damaged during the surgery and the blood supply to the kidney was interrupted.

As a result the kidney started to shrink. He told Gulf News yesterday the child's kidney may have shrunk. "A 24-day-old baby's kidney is too small and can shrink. You cannot find it by a C.T. scan.

"I consulted a paediatric surgeon and he also confirmed that the kidney can shrink. It has happened in other cases also. I am confident that the kidney was not removed during the surgery."

He ruled out any conspiracy or foul play involving the entire medical team who conducted the surgery.

But Noora's mother does not accept the explanation.

"I have consulted doctors in the UAE, Bahrain and India and all of them told me that although kidney may shrink it will not totally disappear.

"The doctors made it clear that a kidney will never shrink to a stage where it disappears in just two and half months. The doctors said that the kidney can be seen as a dry seed in a C.T. scan even if it shrinks.

"I came to know about the missing kidney when a C.T. scan was done after two-and-a-half months of the surgery. The radiologist asked me whether child's left kidney was removed during the surgery."

A senior official of the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi said the issue is being discussed at the highest level. "We will soon come out with a comment," said the official.

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