Six-year-old Theyab Kaabi gets his life back

The life of Theyab Kaabi, a five-and-a-half-year-old national living in Al Ain was saved after a brutal trauma to his torso by Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with John Hopkins Medicine.

According to physicians, the most critical part of the injury was the patient’s right kidney. The force of the accident caused the main artery of Theyab’s right kidney to be almost fully torn; blood flow was more or less non-existent through the kidney. In this condition, to compensate the loss of blood, the body automatically releases a chemical to increase blood pressure in order to push or force the blood through the kidney to keep it alive and functioning. If the condition was not detected and fixed within 24 hours, Theyab would have lost his kidney.

“In these cases, where the force of the trauma is so powerful, the two key factors to saving the life and the organs of a patient are timing and diagnosis,” said Dr Ayman Saleh, Head of Interventional Radiology and Dr Zuhair Shihab, Head of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

The patient was brought into the emergency unit after the accident and was suffering from bleeding in the stomach, a ruptured spleen, and damage to the liver and the kidney.

After conducting an angiogram to see the severity of the injuries, Dr Ayman Saleh and Dr Said Abuhasna, Chief of Critical Care Medicine, decided that the best route to take is to use an invasive procedure and insert a stent in the renal artery.

“The moment stent placement was completed, Theyab’s blood pressure decreased to normal levels. The conclusion of this case is that if we were late in our diagnosis and our treatment plan – then the only solution we would have had is to remove Theyab’s kidney,” said Dr Khalid Atwa, Consultant, Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

During the surgery, Dr Ayman managed to remove a number of clots that formed in the artery as well. Theyab was sent to ICU immediately after the surgery and was under 24 hour surveillance for around a week. He is now back to school and is functioning normally. Dr Ayman, Dr Atwa and Dr Shihab estimated that Theyab’s kidney will need around a year to go back to optimum functioning.

A spokesperson for the Seha HealthSystem which owns and operates Tawam Hospital said, said: “Trauma cases such as Thayeb’s are very unfortunate but not uncommon in road traffic accidents. Thankfully, he was brought to a Seha HealthSystem facility and put in the capable hands of one of the best trauma teams in the UAE.  Tawam’s emergency services were just recognised at this years Arab Health Awards as one of the most capable ER Teams in the Arab world and with good reason.  Cases like this demonstrate that such recognition is well deserved.”

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