Dubai: New paediatric liver transplant centre offers life-saving treatment for children

A new paediatric liver transplant centre will make it possible for hundreds of children to get life-saving interventions without having to travel abroad. The facility, which opened at the Kings College Hospital London, Dubai, will cater to young children who face debilitating liver diseases.

The hospital will offer the split liver transplant technique, which will allow a dead person’s liver to be transplanted into a child and an adult, thus saving two lives.

Prof Mohamed Rela, who pioneers the technique and has performed over 4,000 liver transplants, explained how transplants change lives.

“A five-day-old child I operated on is now a lawyer,” said Prof Mohamed. “If you look at her now, you will never guess that she has undergone a transplant. It is an operation that transforms lives. It is an operation that is essential for this country.”

According to Kimberley Pierce, CEO of Kings College Hospital London, Dubai, the centre will have far-reaching effects on the region. “There are a lot of children who need liver transplant surgeries for a number of reasons,” she said.

“Part of it is because the disease sickle cell anaemia, which is quite prevalent here, causes damage to the liver and, in some cases, makes a liver transplant necessary. With this centre, none of these families will have to travel outside the UAE to get that.”

She added that there were several programmes to offer financial assistance to those who required a liver transplant but could not afford it. “There are a lot of families who cannot afford it,” she said.

“So, we have partnered with charities like Al Jalila Foundation which will help fund some of these procedures. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) also have a program where they subsidise transplants for children.”

Welcoming the move to set up a paediatric liver transplant center here was Christine Inciong. In 2020, the Filipina expat faced one of her life's toughest decisions. Her eight-year-old son Uno needed a liver transplant. However, the procedure was not available in the UAE and she needed to travel to India at the peak of the Covid pandemic, leaving behind her younger four year-old son.

“I had to leave him alone here with a nanny,” she told. “We had to stay in India for more than two months as Uno recovered. It was the toughest time of my life as my husband had been rendered jobless as a result of the pandemic, and I was the sole breadwinner. Initially, we were supposed to stay there for six months but we returned earlier after the doctors said we could complete recovery at home.”

Christine, who donated part of her liver to Uno said she was grateful for the opportunity to save her son’s life. “I was the only person in the family who was a match,” she said. “I am glad that I was able to donate. The doctors explained that live donations are possible since children need only a smaller part of the liver. My liver, as well as his, will continue to regenerate. We are constantly monitored to make sure everything is ok.”

The hospital opened its liver transplant centre for adults in November 2023 and has already completed 14 successful transplants. According to Kimberley, the demand indicated the large number of people who were impacted by liver-related issues.

“The non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is very prevalent in the GCC,” she said. “No one knows the reason for this. Our doctors are researching it with the MBRU- Mohammed Bin Rashid University Of Medicine and Health Sciences trying to understand why it is so. These are young people and is not nationality specific.”