While the people of the UAE are planning for a warm welcome for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the president, nearing the end of a lengthy hospitalization at the Cleveland Clinic, fell and broke his hip Monday, The Plain Dealer reported Thursday.
The Cleveland paper said that Clinic officials would neither confirm nor deny information about Sheikh Zayed, but sources familiar with his care said he underwent emergency surgery after the fall and faces another lengthy recuperation.
The Gulf leader was under therapy in Switzerland before he arrived at the Clinic in July and received a new kidney on August 28.
Hip fractures are serious setbacks for any patient, but they can be devastating for transplant patients trying to ward off organ rejection, said the paper.
A gerontologist with the University of Alabama at Birmingham said hip fractures are one of the few curable conditions among the elderly. Doctors reconnect the cracks using a method called pinning.
"It is not horrendous in terms of the kinds of surgeries elderly people face," Dr. Andrew Duxbury, an assistant professor in UAB's Division of Gerontology told the paper. The expert is not connected with the sheik's case.
The paper said that the UAE did not provide any details about the sheik's kidney donor, but the Clinic said the person was not from the United States donor list. Unconfirmed reports prior to the sheik's surgery suggested he had brought three potential donors with him, said the report – Albawaba.com
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