Rashid Hospital restores life and limb
EIGHT SURGEONS IN TRAUMA UNIT’S MICROSURGERY SECTION WORK 24/7 ON ROAD, INDUSTRIAL AND FREAK ACCIDENTS
When it comes to amputations as a result of road and industrial accidents, highly trained surgeons in the microsurgery section of Rashid Hospital’s trauma department have seen it all.
Every day, these surgeons work round-the-clock to not only reattach severed limbs, but to give a patient the confidence and support to get back to a normal life.
These doctors also have to deal with freak accidents.
Recently, a girl had her finger severed in a bowling alley after she failed to disengage her finger that she had curled into one of the holes of the heavy ball for a better grip.
Another person had his thumb severed as he participated in a tug-of-war activity. Then there was the case of a 10-year-old boy whose forefinger got caught in a steel door and had to be amputated.
In another case, a young man had his forearm amputated in a factory accident.
In all cases, timely intervention by surgeons at the microsurgery section not only gave patients back their lost limbs, but also restored full functionality to the reattached appendage.
Dr Khalid Abdullah Al Awadi, consultant plastic and hand surgeon, told Gulf News: “When even a finger is accidentally amputated, the individual not only undergoes pain, but loss of quality of life. In case of torn thumbs, the individual loses almost 50 per cent of hand function as most jobs by hand involve the thumb.
“By reattaching the limb we are able to not only restore the patient’s health, but also give him/her a 100 per cent chance of getting back to his/her job and way of life.”
How it started
Opened in 2014, the microsurgery section started with 30 surgeries a month, but now conducts 150. It performed more than 1,650 different types of microsurgeries last year.
This year, it conducted more than 25 surgeries, reattaching amputated upper limb portions such as the forearm, complete arm, fingers and thumb.
Dr Al Awadi said: “Our team of eight surgeons specialise in this area and we are available 24/7 for any such emergencies.”
Besides the microsurgery, Dr Al Awadi’s team also does muscle flap and skin grafts to restore badly mauled limbs.
“We are on call for different departments such as the cancer ward and other sections of the trauma unit. Recently, I used a part of a lower limb bone to reconstruct the jaw of a patient who had a cancerous tumour in his lower jaw.
“We also transplanted muscle flap from the back of a male patient to his lower leg where the bone and ligament were exposed following a horrific accident,” he said.
In another case, a 26-yearold Kenyan girl got back her foot thanks to a skin graft.
Purity Warimu, a room attendant at a local hotel in Dubai, was involved in a horrific automobile accident in which a car wheel ran over her left foot. She also had severe brain injuries that left her partially paralysed.
Case in point
Her husband Simon Kamau, 32, who flew to Dubai to be by her side, told Gulf News: “My wife does not remember what or who caused the accident. She does not even remember how long she has been in Dubai. However Dr Al Awadi and his team saved her left foot which would otherwise have been amputated.”
When she was brought to the trauma unit, the skin on Warimu’s left foot had been shorn off, and her muscles and bones were exposed.
“There was little chance of her foot healing without a skin graft. So we used cadaveric human skin [skin of a deceased person] and grafted it on her foot. This was used as a scaffold over which her own skin was grafted.
“In five days, the cadaveric graft healed after which we put the patient’s own skin and now her foot is healing well. After her head injury treatment, the patient will now be able to use her left foot after rehabilitation and return to a normal life,” Dr Al Awadi said.
1,650
microsurgeries done at Rashid Hospital in 2017
150
surgeries a month done by microsurgery section
By reattaching a limb, we not only restore the patient’s health, but also give him/ her a 100 per cent chance of getting back to his/her job and way of life.”
Dr Khalid Al Awadi | Consultant plastic and hand surgeon