Everyday Miracles: A Heart Warming Story For World Health Day

The World Health Organisation invites us to join a new campaign to build a fairer, healthier world – one where everyone can have access to the medical care they need and deserve

To commemorate World Health Day, we celebrate the story of baby Ahmed from Sharjah, who this time last year faced an urgent liver transplant – which meant travelling to King’s College Hospital in London during Covid-19 travel and hospital restrictions. The journey seemed unlikely and Ahmed’s condition was worsening, but through a series of unprecedented manoeuvres by medical staff both in Dubai and the UK, Ahmed’s life was saved.

“Ahmed was a very thin baby and signs of jaundice were very clear after birth,” explains his mother Mariam Darwish Alzaab. “We had continuous follow ups to determine the degree of jaundice, and after the age of two months he started showing some other symptoms.”

After a number of tests including a biopsy at Khalifa Hospital in Abu Dhabi last January, baby Ahmed was diagnosed with liver disease, his parents were advised to visit King’s College Hospital London in Dubai for a second opinion from an expert in the field of hepatology. Here, Dr. Rajeev Tomar confirmed their worst fears.

“He was frank with us,” recalls Mariam, 27, who lives in the Kalba area of Sharjah with husband Obaid, and her two other sons, Hamid, four and Hamda, two. “He told us that the situation is serious and that my son Ahmed’s liver is in a bad condition and we urgently need to travel abroad to London because the possibility of my son’s need for transplantation is high.”

What followed were months of admin to get approval for the family to travel during the pandemic when international flights were suspended, and to be accepted for an appointment at King’s College Hospital London during a time they were restricting the numbers of international patients they could help. As chance would have it, the UAE has a special connection with the hospital – His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founding father of the UAE, made a generous donation in 1979 to the hospital to help set up its Liver Research Centre.

“We traveled to London in July 2020 after many procedures and paperwork, upon our arrival in London we were required to quarantine ourselves in a hotel for 14 days before the appointment,” remembers Mariam, who works for the Environment and Nature Reserves Authority in Sharjah. “But within a week of our arrival, Ahmed’s health condition deteriorated and he suffered a haemorrhage. He needed an urgent laparoscopic operation the next morning to stop the bleeding and a biopsy from the liver. Ahmed’s need for a rapid liver transplantation was confirmed – there was no alternative treatment.”

Mariam recalls the shock: “The news made us lose our strength. I was not convinced, sure there would be another option,” she says. “But we stayed in the hospital for a week and during this period the doctors made a great effort to convince us of the operation. We spoke with many doctors and consultants, and during my stay, the hospital had an Arab family that went through the same issue and their operation was completed successfully, so they asked me to meet this family to learn more.”

Mariam and her husband agreed to the transplant, with the baby’s father set to be the donor. “It was concluded that my husband could not donate to Ahmed due to the difference in the size of the liver between them and because of the physical structure of my husband,” she explains. “So, I was the right person, we did not hesitate for a moment and the operation was set for 23rd August 2020.”

The operation took over ten hours. “It was very difficult for my husband,” says Mariam. “He did not know the fate of his son and his wife, given that it is a difficult operation and its risks are great.”

Thankfully, the operation was a success – performed in two separate hospitals due to Coronavirus restrictions.

“The operation was performed for the donor – myself, in Cromwell Hospital and my son Ahmed was at Kings College Hospital. I stayed for a week in hospital in London without seeing my son or any person due to the pandemic, and my son Ahmed spent two weeks in intensive care,” recalls Mariam. “I could see my son only 10 days after the operation because I was unable to move. It was strange and difficult seeing my son surrounded by medical equipment and needles.”

Ongoing tests and check-ups kept the family in London for a further three months, Ahmed celebrating his first birthday there in November 2020. Shortly after the milestone the family were able to return to the UAE.

“Ahmed enjoys good health now,” smiles Mariam. “He is keeping a set of medicines for the rest of his life, but it is easy, given what we have been through. He has started trying to talk and tries to take his first steps, and is cheerful among his brothers who he missed for the five months we were apart from them.”

Due to the hard work and perseverance of medical teams on opposite sides of the globe. Baby Ahmed has been given the gift of life.

For more information on World Health Day visit: www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2021

For more information on Kings College Hospital Dubai visit: kingscollegehospitaldubai.com