For patients across the UAE and the wider region, the transplant waiting list represents a critical threshold between their disease and recovery. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi was the UAE’s first and only multi-organ transplant facility, and since its inception in 2017, the program completed 1000+ transplants performed, playing a pivotal part in transforming of lives.
In 2025 alone, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi completed 242 transplants – a figure that nearly matches the total number of transplant surgeries performed over the program’s first five years – highlighting an extraordinary acceleration in capacity, proficiency, and clinical experience.
With an evolving capability in tackling cases of increased complexity and leveraging robotic-assisted surgeries, the hospital made history with the Middle East’s first-ever robotic lung transplant, being one of five centres globally to perform this complex lifesaving, minimally invasive procedure.
Reflecting on the achievement, Dr. Usman Ahmad, Division Chair, Thoracic Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, said: “Lung transplant in general and robotic lung transplant in particular requires team expertise, an ecosystem of advanced technology, and expert multidisciplinary support. The minimally invasive robotic approach helped accelerate recovery. These are complex but highly rewarding surgeries and is a proud achievement for the hospital, the UAE and the region as a whole.”
In early 2025, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi also successfully performed a groundbreaking UAE-first robotic bilateral kidney transplant from a deceased donor, for a patient who had been on haemodialysis for three years prior to the surgery.
Transplant, Urology at Cleveland
Clinic Abu Dhabi
Chair, Thoracic Surgery at
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi
Dr. Bashir Sankari, Director of Transplant, Urology at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, said: “The bilateral kidney transplantation is a significant milestone for those with compromised organ function, improving outcomes and the patient’s quality of life. Complexity for us is not a barrier, but a call for collaboration from multiple specialties to prove what is eventually possible, pushing the boundaries of medical excellence.”
The success of all these transplant procedures is attributed to seamless coordination and multidisciplinary efforts that go beyond the operating theatre – be it pre-surgical planning, post-transplant recovery and care, surgical teams, anaesthesia, critical care – all to deliver the best possible outcomes for patients.
Most importantly, none of these lifesaving transplants would be possible without the extraordinary generosity of organ donors and their families. In moments of unimaginable grief, they choose hope, turning personal loss into a second chance at life for someone else. Their selfless decisions shorten waitlists, raise survival rates, and make the impossible possible, offering families renewed futures and patients the precious gift of time.
- For more information, visit: www.clevelandclinicabudhabi.ae
