Kamal Qureshi, was struggling for months with his restricted movements, owing to an abnormally large hernia that grew to a size of 20-25cm.

He was found to have an abnormally large hernia in his abdomen that had pushed almost 60 per cent of the contents of the abdomen out of the stomach.

However, a team of doctors from Abu Dhabi have successfully performed a rare and complex hernia surgery on a 58-year-old patient recently.

Dr Ananth Pai, specialist surgeon from NMC group hospitals performed the rare surgery at the hospital's Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi branch, said: "Kamal, owing to his prior surgeries, had developed a complication called incisional hernia. An incisional hernia is a type of hernia caused by an incompletely-healed surgical wound post an incision in the abdomen area which had been performed for an abdominal surgery."

Kamal, a Pakistani national, who has been living in Abu Dhabi for the past 30 years had undergone heart bypass surgery once, angioplasty twice and all the procedures were done between Pakistan, UAE and Germany.

Dr Pai added: "We did this as team work with full cooperation from a groupy of doctors including Dr Tim Tollens from Belgium who operates at NMC Hospital DIP and other specialists from anaesthesia, bariatric surgery, cardiology, endocrinology, pulmonology, ICU and radiology.

"Owing to his age, diabetes, cardiology profile, and most importantly the size of the hernia, this was one such case where patients have to travel abroad because of the very high risk involved in surgery."

Kamal, a goverment employee, said: "I had travelled to Germany for this surgery but they refused owing to my weight. I am grateful that I found Dr Pai and Dr Tollens who helped me come out this problem".

Prasanth Manghat, CEO of NMC Healthcare, said: "It gives us immense happiness that our advanced surgery programme, also having the only (Asia Pacific Hernia Society recognised centre all the UAE, continues to save lives and serve communities."

The patient had an uneventful stay in the hospital, was discharged last week and is on a follow up with his doctors. Although on rest, he is also fit to join his duties