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Kafeel Ahmed to get shark skin graft
July 24, 2007 12:51 IST
Doctors in the United Kingdom are to use skin made from sharks to treat 27-year-old Kafeel Ahmed, a terror suspect horrifically burnt in the Glasgow airport attack.
Struggling to save Ahmed, surgeons have finally turned to this revolutionary treatment, known as Integra Dermal Regeneration Template, which costs over 20,000 pounds, British tabloid The Sun reported on Tuesday.
"It tricks the body into creating new skin cells," the tabloid quoted surgeon Steve Jeffrey, who spent nine months in Australia perfecting the treatment, as saying.
In fact, the expensive process involves doctors placing silicone implants with shark skin extracts on to the burns.
After two weeks, the outer silicone layer is removed and replaced with a layer of skin thinner than a graft.
A chemical in shark's skin prevents a scar from forming and allows the body to produce a skin-like tissue.
"Ahmed is being treated with these grafts because there is nothing left on his body that can be used," the tabloid quoted a source, without revealing his name.
"He is receiving the latest technology to try to heal the skin -- but there is still little hope of him surviving," a Glasgow Royal Infirmary insider said.
"In the past, pig skin was used to treat severe burns, but shark skin treatment is used now," the insider added.
However, another insider said that Ahmed is in a coma.
"This person is effectively dead already," this sorce said.
Ahmed, a second cousin of Mohammed Haneef, who's currently held in Australia in connection with the foiled terror attack in the UK, allegedly drove a blazing jeep into the Glasgow airport recently.
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