JEDDAH — Surgeons at Saudi German Hospital in Jeddah successfully transplanted a donated kidney to a French patient recently.
The 46-year-old patient had been suffering from kidney failure for several years due to a hereditary disease that affected him and some of his siblings.
Nawal, 42, donated one of her kidneys to her husband, Khalifa Qandouzi, whose illness became so critical as his blood creatinine level reached 17.5 mg/dl and he was supposed to start regular dialysis if the kidney transplant operation did not go ahead.
The surgical team described the case as a difficult one. They made pre-surgery evaluation for several months and the post-transplantation follow-up was so meticulous because of the very low tissue matching between the patient and his donor. However, the patient was successfully managed and left the hospital several days after the operation. His blood creatinine dropped to 0.9 mg/dl.
This was the 5th case of successful kidney transplantation at the hospital. — SG