A medical team of the King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital (KASCH) at the King Abdulaziz Medical City (National Guard) here have successfully conducted the first liver transplant on a baby boy.
Fahad Mari Said Al-Sairdh, father of the eight-month-old child, expressed his and his family’s gratitude to the hospital staff. “My family and I thank the KASCH medical team for giving a new lease of life to my son, who was still to know what life was and is all about,” an online publication quoted Al-Sairdh as saying.
A doctor from the medical team said that the boy was suffering from a urea cycle disorder, or a genetic disorder caused by a mutation that results in a deficiency of one of the six enzymes in the urea cycle.
He said that the enzymes are responsible for removing ammonia from the blood stream. “The procedure was exciting because it posed a great challenge to our medical expertise. It was the first liver transplant for this type of disease to be performed at the hospital,” he added.