A team of surgeons at Al Mafraq hospital saved the life of a Somali woman by removing her spleen which was the size of a "watermelon".
Eissa Al Romaithy, Director of Al Mafraq hospital, said: "Surgeons managed to remove the spleen of the patient without injuring any of her organs. If she had come in a little later she would have died. Thankfully the operation was a success and she can now go home,"
The surgeon who operated on the 20 year-old woman, Dr Jamal Abdul Rahim, told Gulf News: "The patient came to us complaining of abdominal pain. After conducting tests we found that her spleen was enlarged to four times the normal size. A blood-filled cyst had accumulated inside the spleen."
The cyst was about 590 square centimetres in size and contained congealed blood that had gathered when the patient suffered from malaria and was injured in her childhood.
"A fall could have ruptured the cyst and she would have died."
"The spleen was adhered to everything around it and we had to remove the cyst intact and without rupturing it while it was still inside the abdomen," the surgeon said.
