Sharjah surgery gives mobility to wheelchair-bound student

A 21-year-old wheelchair-bound student has regained his mobility, after a three-hour emergency microscopic surgery in Sharjah and is now ready to take his exams at his university in Baghdad.

Concerning lower back pain (LBP), Neurosurgery consultant Dr. Adnan Shariq told Gulf Today, that while six of 10 of his patients in the UAE have been discovered to have sustained herniated or slipped discs – manifested by severe pain and muscle spasms – the way to keep this at bay is by maintaining a “healthy spine.”

A healthy spine means keeping the appropriate weight and appropriate body mass index, said Shariq, from his office at the Oriana Hospitals and Clinics in Sharjah.

“We have to keep this in mind because the spine absorbs majority, if not all, of the pressure of the body. We have to make sure that our back muscles are strong because these support our spine,” said Shariq who got fascinated with Neurosurgery because it has to do with the brain, the spine, the traumas, and corresponding surgeries, while at medical school in Romania.

“We keep our back muscles strong by regular physical exercises like walking. Hydration is important because we have to keep our discs from drying so these will not break,” he also said, adding that of his LBP patients across the country in the past two years, it is not the elderly who are most affected.

It is those who drive for long hours and those who normally get stuck in traffic, office workers who also have to deal with screen times, and those who stand for long hours such as the store merchandisers.

“Do not sit or stand for long hours. These put much pressure on the spine, especially if we are overweight and obese. Take a break and relax,” Shariq said.

Shariq’s expert opinion on LBP and his observational data from his patients were enquired, since the medical data of his 21-year-old patient who had to be on wheelchair for at least a month, revealed that he met a moped-related accident in Baghdad in September 2024. The young man fell from the mini motorcycle he was on with a friend.

Surgery was conducted on October 3, 2024.

The UAE trip happened two weeks later.

According to the magnetic resonance imaging done on November 7 at the Sharjah hospital, “he was already an emergency case. There was infection in the spine. We had to perform the surgery soonest.”

The accident impacted the patient’s left lower back. The fall “squeezed” his spinal cord as a consequence of an “herniated” or slipped disc whereby the disc “ruptured,” allowing the “rubber-like material” within the disc to ooze out “putting pressure on the spinal cord and nerve root.”

The patient became wheelchair-bound, weak and unable to walk after the October 3 surgery since a pus build-up or abscess occurred.

Enquired about the consequence if the infected spine of the 21-year-old remains neglected or unattended, Shariq who went to specialise in neurosurgery for seven years in Germany, said: “The abscess would spread to the entire body. By the time we checked on him and based on tests the hospital conducted, there was already a high infection rate in the blood. His spinal cord was long compressed. His left lower back nerve root was almost completely crushed. So, the numbness on his left leg and his inability to walk.”

Saying that each nerve root has one function relative to body movements, Shariq also said: “Small infection could be treated with antibiotic. But with the clear spinal column compression and the abscess, microscopic surgery was the only solution.”

The three-hour emergency microscopy surgery that began with an incision on the patient’s left lower back took place on November 10.

The abscess was completely drained.

Relaxation of his “squeezed” spinal cord followed. Post-therapy included an eight-week dosage of two kinds of antibiotics to prevent abscess recurrence. There were 10 physiotherapy sessions for muscle strengthening and for the restoration of the patient’s gait or “power for walking since he had been on wheelchair for more than a month.”

“He visited last April 29. He was happy. Already independently walking. He was here to get his medical report which he needed for his exams in his university in Baghdad,” Shariq said.