A female Saudi doctor has succeeded in using arthroscopic surgery to remove a dead fetus from the uterus of a patient. Dr. Handai Ba'aktha, head of the arthroscopy unit at the Maternity and Children's Hospital in Jeddah, performed the operation which eliminated the need to perform a hysterectomy, thus making it possible for the woman to become pregnant in the future. Dr. Ba'aktha, who spoke to Saudi Gazette about this important achievement, said that such surgery was dangerous and could have led to serious medical complications. “This kind of surgery can be very dangerous and the patient may suffer serious complications in the uterus which would result in its removal. In that case, of course, the patient would never be able to have children again,” she explained. “When the patient visited me in the emergency department, I started to search for a way to remove the dead fetus without removing the uterus. The only option seemed to be arthroscopic surgery.” Following the surgery the patient returned to the hospital each week to be checked by the doctor. “I conducted a medical checkup of the patient each week for several weeks to make sure of her complete recovery and of her ability to be pregnant in the future,” Dr. Ba'aktha said. The story began when the woman started feeling pain in the first two months of her pregnancy which caused her to make several visits to hospitals in Madina. “Most of the doctors and consultants there told us about the urgent need for surgery to remove the uterus as soon as possible,” said Eisa Maeid Al-Jabri, the woman's husband. “After we visited several hospitals in Madina, I decided to visit Jeddah, where we could find a large number of consultants in this field,” he added. The woman and her husband had consultations with doctors in many private hospitals in Jeddah. They agreed to conduct the surgery, but their fees and those of the hospitals were much more than the couple could afford. “After being confused for several weeks, my friends advised us to visit the Maternity and Children's Hospital in Jeddah, which has a large staff of experienced consultants,” Al-Jabri said. Many patients visit large specialist hospitals without being aware that government hospitals are ready to perform surgery for free. “Our hospital has had a lot of experience in this field, and in fact we conduct surgical operations on a daily basis. We welcome urgent cases to come to the Jeddah Maternity and Children's Hospital for medical checkup and surgery,” said the hospital's director Dr. Kamal Abdullah Abou Rukba.
