Man ‘miraculously’ survives crash with first windpipe surgery of its kind in UAE

Abu Dhabi - Doctors had no idea how he survived the accident.

A delivery driver, who was almost crushed to death by a bus in Sharjah during his work shift, had his life saved by doctors in Abu Dhabi, in a first-of-its-kind operation in the UAE. 
Mohamed Qasim, a motorcycle delivery driver from Pakistan, was rushed to a hospital in Sharjah after a traffic accident involving a bus three weeks ago.
The patient suffered severe injuries, including a total rupture of his windpipe.
Due to the complications of his case, no other hospital was able to take the patient in.
That's when Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (CCAD) stepped in and done the surgery, without any cost or medical insurance from the patient's side.
Speaking to Khaleej Times from Paris, the surgeon who saved the life of the 32-year-old man said "it was a miracle" the delivery driver was still alive.
"The fact that he was still alive was a miracle. I couldn't believe he was breathing with a completely ruptured windpipe," said Dr Redha Souilamas, Chair of Thoracic Surgery at CCAD, who led the complex operation. 
Dr Souilamas said the patient was only breathing a small amount of oxygen through the nose.
He said the patient was in such a critical situation that he had less than one day left to live.
"He could have died the following day if we didn't do this surgery."
"We immediately took him to the operating room."
He pointed out that CCAD does not only take Emirati patients or residents with high medical insurance cover.
"When it's life-threatening, we will do what we can to help anyone."
"The young man didn't have insurance - he wasn't even a resident in Abu Dhabi. We did this as a humanitarian purpose because no other hospital could do the surgery and he would have died."
Dr Souilamas said when he looked at the CT scan before the surgery, he could see a large section of the windpipe was completely gone, and the full extent of the damage only became apparent during the surgery.
"Given Mohamed's injuries, we had to develop a new approach to bridge the gap while he was in the operating room."
Usually, doctors must perform these types of surgeries within 24 to 48 hours to repair the damage, but in Mohamed's case, four days had already passed, because the surgeons were waiting to receive the patient from another hospital.
The six-hour operation saw the surgical team develop a novel approach to bridging the gap in the patient's windpipe. 
The complex procedure required doctors to connect him to an artificial lung machine, before they could safely operate on his airway. 
During the operation, surgeons repaired the young man's airway by using a metal stent to bridge the gap caused by the accident and reconnect his windpipe, a technique "never attempted before."
Dr Souilamas explained traditionally, surgeons remove a damaged or diseased section of the windpipe and bridge the gap by transplanting a section from a deceased donor, something that was not possible in an emergency case like Mohamed's.
"I've never seen a case like this, where a patient with a total rupture of the windpipe continues to breathe on their own for so long," he added.
Mohamed, who is now recovering well in his home with his brother and uncle by his side, said that he will forever be thankful for having a second chance at life.
Dr Souilamas said the patient and his brother were both in tears after he woke up from the life-saving operation.
"He kept saying: Thank you for saving my life, I will never forget this, I will never forget what you did for me."
jasmine@khaleejtimes.com 

• Abu Dhabi