Toddler hurt at fairground to fly out of UAE for brain injury treatment

Emirati boy who has been in hospital for weeks after being hit on the head by a fairground ride will travel abroad for further treatment, his father has said.

SHARJAH // The Emirati toddler who has been in hospital for weeks after being hit on the head by a fairground ride will travel abroad for further treatment.

Obeid Saeed Al Zayoudi said his son, Khalifa, was showing signs of gradual but slow progress.

“Now he can move the tips of his fingers and toes and can open and close his eyes, which is minimal progress given that he stayed in the ICU for 50 days,” he told The National’s Arabic sister paper, Al Ittihad.

Khalifa has been in the intensive care unit of Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah since the accident at Al Majaz Park in December. The child managed to make his way, unattended, to a ride’s platform as it was operating and it struck the boy on the head.

When Khalifa was admitted to hospital, doctors said he had suffered a severe brain haemorrhage and required surgery.

“He is no longer on artificial respiration ... but his condition is not getting better quickly enough,” Mr Al Zayoudi said.

Dr Satish Krishna, the consultant surgeon supervising Khalifa’s case, said the boy’s gradual progress is positive for the stability of his condition, especially considering he came into hospital in a critical state.

The boy’s condition is still delicate, Dr Krishna said, adding that the decision to take him abroad for treatment did not mean there were inadequacies in the treatment at Al Qassimi Hospital.