It’s not often now that the news cycle in this region is dominated by headlines other than the fall of Aleppo, the fight against terror in Iraq, developments in Yemen, and geopolitical events emanating from Washington, Beijing and Moscow. It seems as if there is an abundance of bad news. This weekend, though, we were all given reason to pause, think and smile, with news that the worlds of medicine and science had come together to allow for a tiny miracle to occur — the birth of a child that has already overcome incredible odds, a world’s first, and the proudest moment for a Dubai family.
In a London hospital last week, a little baby boy weighed in at a healthy 3.2 kilograms, the proud newborn son of 24-year-old Dubai woman Moza Al Matroushi. Moza is believed to be the first woman in the world to deliver a baby after having frozen ovary tissue before puberty. The odds of this happening would be infinitesimal were it not for the combination of parental foresight and developments in reproductive sciences and medical advances.
While there are more than 60 cases of children being born to women whom have had their ovaries frozen. Moza’s case is unique in that the harvesting of her ovarian tissue occurred when she was just nine years’ old. Having been diagnosed with beta thalassaemia, she required a bone-marrow transplant and chemotherapy — and the treatment of the condition would have made her future pregnancy highly unlikely.
Thanks to her mother’s insistence and foresight, Moza had been afforded the possibility of being able to have children down the road. The birth of her son on Tuesday is testament to a remarkable story of hope. Mabrook!
