Stem cells help heal blast victim’s legs
PLASTIC SURGEON IN DUBAI HOSPITAL TREATS PALESTINIAN WOMAN’S DEEP CALF WOUND USING NEW TECHNIQUE
Plastic surgeon in Dubai hospital treats Palestinian woman’s deep calf wound using new technique |
A19-year-old Palestinian bomb blast victim underwent a cosmetic surgery using her own stem cells to fill a gaping hole in the calf of her right leg.
The surgery was done at a Dubai hospital free of charge in the spirit of Year of Giving. Dr Mohan Rangaswamy, the chief plastic surgeon at the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Hospital (AACSH), is among one of the first to use this technique in the region.
The surgeries, the first two of which have already been carried out at the hospital in Dubai Health Care City, will relieve the young woman of pain and improve circulation in the calf while adding fat cells to fill up the hole, said Dr Rangaswamy.
Nima Freij underwent the first two surgeries in December 2016, and arrived in Dubai for the third surgery to be carried out before Eid Al Fitr.
Reliving the horror of the explosion when she was 11-anda-half years, young Nima Freij, now a high school graduate, said: “I was going to the market to buy some chocolates with friends near my home in Gaza when someone threw a bomb at a young man from the antiterrorist squad who was standing close to us. The bomb hit the ground and exploded and a shrapnel got into my calf muscle ripping it. I passed out from the pain and when I gained consciousness, I could see the ripped fabric of my trousers with flesh hanging out and blood everywhere,” said Freij in a calm, matter-of-fact manner.
Freij was taken in an ambulance to the hospital in Gaza where she was in danger of losing her leg. “There was no anaesthesia available at the hospital and the doctors could not carry out any surgery. For nearly a month, they continued to scrape out dead tissue without anaesthesia, clean my wounds and do dressing. The surgeons feared they would have to amputate my leg. “I was too young to understand the implications of amputation but now when I can stand on my two legs, I am thankful amputation was averted.”
Freij was taken by volunteers to Egypt and Saudi Arabia where a skin graft was carried out and the wound was eventually closed. However, as she grew, the graft which was thin and tight began to cause a lot of pain on her wound and finally she came to AACSH in December last year.
Elaborating on the procedure, Dr Rangaswamy told Gulf
News: “The patient had lost a lot of muscle and fat in the right leg owing to the explosion. The skin graft that was used to cover the wound had over the years tightened as she grew up as grafts do not grow. We conducted two surgeries in December 2016.
In the first surgery, we first harvested the stem cells from her own adipose tissue which is now considered one of the richest sources of dormant stem cells, even better than the bone marrow. This technology is available at a laboratory in Health Care City. In the second surgery, I used these stem cells, mixed with fat cells, to inject into the calf area. This not only helped elevate the depth of the wound, but softened the scars and had anti-inflammatory effect on the area. Now the contours of the affected area have improved.”
In the third surgery to be carried out this month, Dr Rangaswamy plans to remove the front of the grafted skin, and advance the tissue and surrounding skin within and extend the flab.