A seven-year-old girl from Iraq underwent stem cell treatment for a heart ailment at Frontier Lifeline Hospital, recently.
The child, Nourl Al Zahara from Baghdad, is the only child of Salem, a botany teacher, and Raza, a lawyer. She was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscles get enlarged and weak. When she was six months old, she had trouble breathing, and when she began walking, would get tired easily. Her skeletal muscles were also weak.
Stem cell treatment was chosen, a release from the hospital said, as doctors wanted to give Nourl’s heart a chance to regenerate and ensure her quality of her life was not compromised.
“As the heart does not have the capacity to heal by itself, stem cell therapy helps in the process. The treatment was successful and the child is now healthy and looking forward to going to school,” said CEO and chairman of the hospital K.M. Cherian, according to the release.
The hospital has permission and approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research for stem cell treatment for heart diseases. Over 100 children have benefited from stem cell implantations at the hospital, the release said.
