Najran: Shahad, a five-year-old Saudi girl has undergone about 70 surgical operations in three years, but her condition has not improved, her father has claimed.

Hussain Al-Khidaish urged the concerned authorities to help her get proper treatment abroad.

Al-Watan cited Al-Khidaish as saying that his daughter swallowed a burning matter when she was two. It caused severe burns in the oesophagus and stomach, reports Saudi Gazette.

He did not specify the matter his daughter had swallowed but said since then she never became normal again.

Al-Khidaish said his daughter is unable to swallow anything or take food or water. ‘She is being fed through a tube in the nose,’ he said.

The father said Shahad was first taken to Saad Hospital in Al-Khobar where she stayed for two weeks on artificial breathing system. She was then referred to an educational hospital in the same city.

He said his daughter was then taken to King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh where she had endoscopic operations once every two weeks to expand the esophagus and stomach.

‘A feeding tube was planted in the stomach. She remained like this for two and a half years without any improvement,’ the aggrieved father said.

He said her condition further worsened when the esophagus was pierced during the endoscopic operations to expand it.

The father said the expansion operations his daughter had undergone in King Fahd Medical City alone were about 50.

He said after that his daughter was referred to King Khaled University Hospital in Riyadh where again numerous expansion operations were done in esophagus and the stomach without any positive result.

The father said the condition of his daughter is worsening by the day and asked that she be sent abroad to be treated at government’s expenses.