Emirati boy has leg reattached after jet ski accident

Doctors perform complex seven-hour operation after youth is injured in collision at sea

An 11-year-old boy who was badly injured in a jet ski accident had his leg reattached after a seven-hour surgery. Antonie Robertson / The National

An 11-year-old Emirati boy has had his leg reattached after being injured in a jet ski accident.

Doctors at Rashid Hospital in Dubai performed the complex seven-hour operation on the youngster, whose leg was severed when two jet skis collided at sea.

A team from the hospital’s specialist hand surgery department reattached the limb by reconnecting bone, nerves, arteries and tissue.

The boy, who was not named, was then admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit to ensure blood had started to flow to the reattached limb.

Doctors performed a second procedure five days later.

Skin was taken from the boy’s other leg and used to cover the wound left by the amputation.

The child now faces at least a year of therapy and follow-up care to enable him to walk again.

Dr Khalid Al Awadi, head of surgery at Rashid Hospital, said the child was lucky to survive the accident.

“This kind of injury is critical and requires urgent medical intervention,” he said.

“In light of the low success rates of leg amputations in general, operations to restore amputated limbs are among the most difficult and complex surgeries.

“They require the reconnection of nerves, arteries and tissues, some of which cannot be seen with the naked eye and are dealt with through microscopes.”

Reattaching severed limbs requires a specialist form of microsurgery and must be performed within six to eight hours of the body part’s amputation.

To offer the best chance for an operation to be successful, severed limbs should be kept in an ice-cold, sterile environment.

After the operation, doctors monitor the temperature of the reattached limb to assess whether the procedure has been a success.

Typically, the limb should reach 31ºC to show signs of recovery, with hourly checks performed using ultrasound to monitor healthy blood flow.

While child amputees are rare, Rashid Hospital has a team of specialists available to deal with industrial accidents that are more common.

In 2019, surgeons at the hospital reattached the arm of an engineer in Dubai who was involved in a freak accident while working on a lift at a hotel.

Thanks to quick-thinking colleagues who recovered the arm after it fell 21 floors down the lift shaft, the limb was reattach in a nine-hour operation.

The 35-year-old from Kerala, India, has since made a full recovery.

Jet skis banned from part of Dubai

Although the specific details of the horror accident were not disclosed, the boy's ordeal served as a reminder of the potential dangers of jet ski riding.

Earlier this month, jet skis were banned from entering the Palm Jumeirah with immediate effect after residents complained about high-speed races near swimming zones.

An announcement was posted by Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) on August 2 to end months of nuisance riding of jet skis near family beaches and designated water sport areas.

The announcement was met with relief from residents of Shoreline apartments, many of whom had campaigned for several months to enforce a 4-knot speed limit, about 9 kilometres per hour, on the island’s waterways.