MAKKAH: A specialist team from Makkah’s King Faisal Hospital has successfully performed an emergency procedure to save the life of an Iraqi pilgrim in her 70s. Hatem Al-Masoudi, spokesman for the Makkah Health Cluster, said that the pilgrim was taken to the hospital’s emergency department by Red Crescent after complaining of constipation, nausea and severe fatigue. “It was found after conducting clinical, laboratory and radiological examinations that the pilgrim was suffering from a severe inflammation and inflation in the left kidney with an abscess that caused a high temperature and led to blood poisoning,” he said. Specialists carried out emergency surgery to remove the patient’s left kidney. Up to 60 percent of patients with the condition die, statistics show. Al-Masoudi told Arab News that the six-hour operation was performed by an integrative team of urologists, surgeons and anesthetists. After surgery, the patient was transferred to the intensive care unit, where her condition stabilized. According to Al-Masoudi, the Iraqi pilgrim had been suffering from pain in the left kidney for almost a year, but the condition was not diagnosed. “This type of specialized operation requires the presence of an integrated and specialized team, and this is what distinguishes the health sector in Makkah. The Saudi government has put at the service of its citizens, residents and visitors distinguished medical expertise and a myriad of state-of-the-art equipment to provide them with quality health care services comparable to the best countries in the world,” he said.