Double joy for couple after rare condition is treated

Al Ain: The birth of twins has given new meaning to the lives of a couple who thought they would never have children of their own.

They are now the proud parents of not one, but two healthy babies, a boy and a girl after help from Tawam Hospital.

Majira Koya, who is in her twenties, suffers from a rare medical condition which means she produces antibodies which attack her unborn baby's liver. She had already lost three children.

Majir lost her first baby towards the end of her pregnancy.

The couple's second child died a few days after birth, and their third child developed severe liver problems and died aged just 21 days, said doctors at the hospital.

The couple's consultant Dr Josef Hertecant, a specialist in paediatric gastroenterology and in liver and metabolic diseases at the hospital, diagnosed their third child with Neonatal Hemochromatosis.

The disease can more easily be explained by comparing it with rhesus alloimmunity, he said. In Rhesus alloimmunity the mother develops antibodies that attack and destroy the red blood cells of her unborn baby.

"Similarly in Neonatal Hemochromatosis the mother produces antibodies that attack and destroy the liver of her unborn child, for reasons that are still unknown."

Research on the disease was published almost six months after the death of the couple's last child. It said Neonatal Hemochromatosis could be prevented in new pregnancies. The treatment, however was very costly.

The hospital agreed to pay the expenses.

Michael E. Heindel, CEO of Tawam Hospital, said: "Tawam Hospital felt an obligation to help this family."