Burjeel initiative benefits Palestinian amputee

Three young men from different countries are now among the growing number of amputees worldwide, benefiting from the continuous evolution of a 1950s medical breakthrough.

- Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

While American Joshua Arnold, 29, is set to continue his rehabilitation support at the Paley Orthopaedic & Spine Institute in Florida, Palestinian Anas Jebeihi, 30, and Indian Sharon Cheriyan, 33, remain in the capital, undergoing physiotherapy sessions at the Burjeel Medical City (BMC).

The three met for the first time when Jebeihi and Arnold-up-and-about-from their respective two-hour August 12 osseointegration surgeries, visited the recovering Cheriyan, operated on August 13, through the same procedure, that also lasted for two hours.

They are the first three beneficiaries of the Dhs4-million “IO Journeys Initiative” by Abu Dhabi-based healthcare group Burjeel Holdings founder/chairman Shamsheer Vayalil.

At the helm of the three surgeries and the remaining seven, is Orthopaedics Surgery consultant Dr. Munjed Al Muderis, also a professor. He founded the Osseointegration Group of Australia composed of specialists in prosthetics, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, anaesthesia, and psychology specialists in 2010.

Eleven years earlier or in 1999, when he was a novice surgeon at the Saddam Hussein Medical Centre in Baghdad, his family fled their home country of Iraq, and as refugees, relocated Down Under.