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.

- Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Concerning lower back pain (LBP), Neurosurgery consultant Dr. Adnan Shariq told Gulf Today, that while six of IO 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.