(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Published: Tue 8 Nov 2022, 12:07 PM
Last updated: Tue 8 Nov 2022, 12:57 PM
Abdul Rahman Fahad Al Marzouqi, a 13-year-old boy, was diagnosed with a a kidney disease a few weeks after he was born.
He had been on dialysis for almost his whole life, until last year, when an anonymous young donor gave away their live kidney.
“I'm feeling great now after a successful kidney transplant. I'm so happy that I don't have to visit the hospital weekly for a dialysis. It's been so hectic for me,” he told Khaleej Times on the side-lines of The International conference for Initiatives on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation on Monday.
The Emirati was one of the successful organ transplant recipients who attended the 3-day-conference which is taking place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec).
Al Mazrouqi's mother says that she is so grateful for the donor who got her child off dialysis, and saved his life.
“I have gone through a lot to raise this child who was diagnosed with a kidney illness just a few weeks after he was born,” said the Emirati mother.
“It hurts to see your child spending most of his time in hospitals. This gift by a young donor has saved the life of my son. I will be eternally grateful to the family of the donor boy and all those donating organs to those in desperate need for them. It takes a special kind of person to keep another human being alive.'
Dr Muhammad Badar Zaman, Chief Division of Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), where Al Marzouqi was treated said since childhood, the boy required multiple operations because he has some anatomical problems in passing urine.
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“We had to find him a perfect donor. Unfortunately, no one in the family was suitable and we had to wait for a deceased's donation,” he said.
“Fortunately, one day, we found him a young donor who died in an accident. His family was kind enough to donate the kidney. Since the transplant, the boy is living a normal life and he's not depending on the dialysis any more.”
Lung transplant Seifdeen Nidal, 22, a Jordanian national underwent a lung transplant at Cleveland Clinic last week.
The family, including his parents, had recently travelled with him to the UAE after authorities found a lungs donor for him.
Aida Shamaeleh, his mother, who also attended the organ donation and transplant conference told Khaleej Times that her son was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), an inherited disorder that causes severe damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs in the body when he was aged one.
“My son faced difficulty in breathing due to the low oxygen levels and always needed machines to support him,” she said adding that Nidal had reached a level where he desperately needed transplant to save his life.
The mother says she began searching for help. She reached out to the Jordanian national organ donor program which collaborated with UAE authorities to find a suitable donor for her son.
Just recently, the family was given the good news that a donor has been found.
The family had to immediately fly to Abu Dhabi where doctors at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi carried out the lung transplant operation on Nidal that has given him back the healthy life he was missing.
“My son is still at the hospital receiving treatment following the operation. But his condition is stable and he's now breathing well,” said the mother.
“I'm really grateful to the people of UAE and the family of the donor for their great humanitarian gesture. They have given my son a new lease of life,” said Shamaeleh.
Nidal, is pursuing a civil engineering course in Jordan and he will be going back to complete his fifth year of the programme after recovering from the surgery.
Dr Ali Al Obaidli, Chairman of UAE National Transplant Committee said post-mortem donations have become a tangible reality in the UAE since issuing the Federal Decree-Law No. (5) of 2016 regulating the transfer and transplantation of human organs and tissues.
According to Obaidi, last year, organs from 39 donors benefited 147 people while this year, organs from 47 donors have helped save lives for 167 people. Most of the organ donations were for kidneys.
Please register on the official website to become a donor post-mortem through the website: