Dubai: In a rare surgery carried out in Dubai for the first time, a young girl who was breathing through a hole in her neck for the last two years, resumed normal independent breathing and also got her voice back thanks to the efforts of Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA’s) ENT consultant surgeon Dr Jamaal Kassouma.
M.S.K., 7, from Oman, the victim of a horrific electric shock at the age of five, was brought to Dubai two years ago at the time of the accident. She suffered a cardiac arrest and was unable to breathe due to that.
The doctors treating her had to create a hole in her neck to be able to put her on a ventilator to breathe. “Her air passage or trachea had stenosis or complete narrowing due to scar tissue from the burns she suffered and therefore the hole in her neck was left open for the last two years to enable her to breathe,” explained Dr Kassouma.
The girl, who was in great pain, struggled with her condition as she was extremely sensitive to catching infections and was advised against taking a bath.
Besides that, M.S.K. had lost her voice and had to communicate using her hands. That was until three months ago when she returned to Dubai Hospital after her recovery and Dr Kassouma carried out the Laryngotracheoplasty (LTP) on her.
“In simple terms an LTP is an upper airway reconstructive procedure. I reconstructed her air passage using cartilage from her rib cage and put in a stent for two weeks which was taken out a couple of days earlier,” Dr Kassouma said. Now M.S.K. has her voice back and her talking and breathing has normalised.
M.S.K. is all set to return to Oman with her parents who are overjoyed to hear the voice of their daughter. “We heard our daughter speak after two years and were so happy. I can only thank God and Dr Kassouma for restoring my daughter’s voice. There is a world of a difference in her condition now and she can breathe independently,” her father told Gulf News.
Dr Kassouma, who is the only surgeon to carry out the complicated LTP procedure in Dubai and the northern emirates, has since then conducted the same procedure on at least five patients belonging to different age groups, the oldest at least 55 years of age, with success in Dubai.
