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Latest stage of UK-Gaza kidney transplant programme begins

January 14, 2019 at 12:18 pm

Palestinian patients undergo kidney dialysis at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City [Ashraf Amra/Apaimages]

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced yesterday that the latest stage of the “From Gaza to Liverpool” kidney transplant programme has begun.

This stage is the 20th instalment of the programme, which is led by the head of the Organ Surgery Centre at the Royal Liverpool Hospital in the UK, Dr Abdelkader Hammad, Safa reported.

Since 2013 Dr Hammad – who is of Palestinian origin – has worked alongside his colleagues to transfer organ transplant expertise from Liverpool to the besieged Gaza Strip. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 61 kidney transplants have been carried out since the start of the programme.

The first kidney transplant of this latest phase was carried out on Saturday. The head of the Artificial Kidneys’ Department at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr Abdullah Al-Qishawi, explained that the operation was carried out by Palestinian doctors on a patient in his thirties. The patient had been suffering from kidney failure for seven months and needed dialysis several times a week.

This operation is one of four kidney transplants to be carried out during this latest phase.

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