The medical field is growing and transforming quicker than us lay people can keep up with. Every time we visit Taiba Hospital to meet with a new specialist we learn about how amazing, and how far, we have come in the medical sciences and how treatment and the management of illness has improved in our lifetimes.
Dr. Tarek Sinan, Professor, lecturer at Kuwait University and Consultant of Interventional Radiology introduced us to the wonderful field that can benefit and improve the lives of so many people.
Dr. Sinan didn’t dream of becoming a doctor as a child. He was an industrious and intelligent student and when he graduated from high school he was the fifth in the country. “People who have the highest grade are supposed to go to medicine,” he explained, “and there was a scholarship to go to medicine in Ireland, so I decided to go for it.” He would have preferred to become an engineer, physicist or a scientist. Figuring out puzzles and solving problems is a skill that comes naturally to him and engages his brain. He eventually arrived at a place where he is doing just that.
Life works in interesting ways, Dr. Sinan became a surgeon and practiced until the Iraqi invasion. As a field doctor he had to contend with devastation, atrocities and personal difficulties which pushed him to rethink his career. He wanted to do something different and settled on Interventional Radiology, at the time, this field was still quite new, controversial but highly sought after. His years of surgery experience paid off, and made the transition easier. Unlike other doctors, he was not squeamish about the body and felt more at ease diagnosing and treating patients.
Interventional Radiology is a medical subspecialty that allows doctors to perform a variety of minimally-invasive procedures (compared to conventional surgery) using medical imaging guidance, such as x-ray fluoroscopy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound. Not only do patients need less downtime after a procedure, it is also much more economical in terms of time and money to choose interventional radiology over invasive surgery.
And every year, there are new diseases and conditions that are added to the list of things that can be treated with interventional radiology. “We can treat all the systems in the body, [with Interventional Radiology], for example in the brain, we can treat aneurysms which is a deadly disease that can kill young healthy people,” he explained.
They can also use the technology to stop internal bleeding, target cancer cells without having to subject the entire body to a lot of unnecessary chemotherapy, remove obstructions in arteries and treat cases of male infertility. And the list grows daily.
Dr. Sinan heads the Interventional Radiology and Pain Management clinic at Taiba Hospital and a lot of their patients come in for help with back and joint pain. Patients first see if their case can be improved by physiotherapy and lifestyle changes. If not, then Interventional Radiology is the next step. The clinic’s goal is to treat the source of the pain instead of just trying to hide or manage the pain.
For more advanced cases, they will be referred to a surgeon, but most cases just need the simple one-day interventional radiology procedures. Patients can even walk out of the hospital on their own two feet, with only a couple of days of taking it easy at home. Dr. Sinan explained that it takes about two weeks for patients to feel the full results of the treatment but overall, the entire experience is quite pleasant.
But, it is all about educating patients and managing expectations too. Healing takes time, and long-term changes to diet, like your activity and lifestyle are necessary to make permanent changes in how a patient will respond to any treatment.
The integrated approach at Taiba Hospital makes it easier for patients to get the best possible care. All departments follow a unified treatment protocol, and all departments communicate and transfer patients for the best care. Dr. Sinan explained that Taiba Hospital prides itself on being more like a “boutique hospital experience” where care is personalized, customized and intimate. They’re not trying to be a big faceless corporation style hospital, instead it is all about the warmth and welcoming experience that complements the excellent medical care.
Taiba Hospital is located in Sabah Al Salem, off of route 30 on Road 3. Call them 24 hours at 180 80 88. For updates and information, visit the website taibahospital.com, and follow them on Instagram @taibahospital.
