Sharjah: A baby girl born with a rare disorder at Al Qasimi Hospital underwent a successful, complex operation when she was just two days old.
Her mother had an uneventful pregnancy but hours after her baby was born, doctors noticed she was struggling to swallow and had an abnormally swollen stomach. The little girl had been born with a congenital defect in her oesophagus.
Within three hours, Dr Khalid Khalfan Bin Sabt, paediatric surgery consultant and deputy technical director. and Dr Mohammad Hassan, consultant, paediatric surgery, decided to go ahead with the minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery.
In the first-of-its kind surgery in the UAE surgeons were able to conduct the complex operation through small holes in the baby’s chest wall using tiny laparoscopic instruments, which had a great impact on the baby’s fast recovery, he added.
After the surgery the baby spent four days in recovery in the neonatal intensive care unit before being discharged. She is now at home with her parents and has made a full recovery. She has started to breastfeed without any complications.
Dr Bin Sabt said the girl’s parents were very worried before the operation and had to undergo counselling.
“Congenital defects causing duodenal obstruction require surgery which can relieve the obstruction and are commonly successful without complications,” Dr Hassan said.
Dr Bin Sabt said: “We are happy that the surgery has presented great results and the baby has recovered well without any complications.”
Dr Bin Sabt praised the efforts by the team during the surgery and the doctors in surgical specialities. He also hailed the support of anaesthesiologists and doctors in the newborn intensive care unit, which made it possible for the operation to be such a success.
He said that these efforts are the first steps in establishing a specialised centre in paediatric minimally invasive surgery for children in the Middle East. This will start soon, with the opening of the Ministry of Health’s new facility in Sharjah for women and newborns. The facility will include two operating rooms equipped with the latest technology in the field of paediatric surgery.
