A Dubai businessman found his wife was truly a perfect match – after she gave him the gift of life by donating her kidney.
Nikolaos Ntigrintakis was told he would probably require crucial transplant surgery after doctors discovered the medication he had taken in his home country of Sweden for inflammatory bowel disease was causing significant damage to his kidneys.
Mr Ntigrintakis, who moved to Dubai in 2013, had been on dialysis for several years when he decided to agree to his wife's offer to donate her kidney.
“Dialysis was tough. I had to reorganise my life to accommodate my condition. I have a wife and two daughters as well as three companies," said Mr Ntigrintakis, a leading figure in the technology sector.
"I had to appoint a temporary chief executive during my treatment and leave them in maintenance mode rather than work to grow them. I remember making decisions from my dialysis bed and just waiting for good news about a transplant.”
Initially reluctant for his wife, Eleni Theodoridou, to make such a sacrifice, he carried out an extensive search to find the best place for the surgery to be carried out.
“After we had decided to go ahead, the next question was where to have the operation," he said.
"I looked into travelling to the US, Germany or Spain but I did my due diligence and decided to opt for Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. I’m very glad I did.”
His care team assessed the transplant compatibility between Mr Ntigrintakis and his wife, finding that of the eight genes that determine a kidney match, they had three in common, making his wife a close match.
"Generally, a parent or sibling would be a 50 per cent match so for Nikolaos' wife to be a 37.5 match was very fortuitous, particularly as they come from quite different backgrounds," said Dr Nizar Attallah, a transplant nephrologist at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
"Happily, with advances in medication, even if people have no genes in common, we can still perform the transplant. These medical advances mean that more people than ever can benefit from life-saving kidney transplants.”
To Mr Ntigrintakis' relief, his wife’s operation was able to be performed minimally invasively, sparing her a long recovery from surgery.
“The way the team took care of me and my wife was fantastic, the checks they did before the surgery to make sure we understood what we were getting into – especially for my wife – really made us feel better about the whole process," he said.
"After the surgery, I am back at work and taking a much more active role in my companies. I feel better than I have in years and the gift my wife gave me has certainly brought us closer together. She saved my life and that’s something I’ll never forget.”
Double health blow uncommon, doctor says
Dr Attallah said a patient suffering kidney damage due to medication for another condition was rare and could usually be avoided.
“It’s uncommon to see patients with kidney damage linked to medication. Particularly someone taking medication for IBD," he said.
"Nikolaos was unfortunate to have experienced this problem and doubly so that it went unnoticed for such a long time. With appropriate follow-up, these complications can generally be avoided altogether, and very rarely progress to the point that a transplant is required.”
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Zidane's managerial achievements
La Liga: 2016/17
Spanish Super Cup: 2017
Uefa Champions League: 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Uefa Super Cup: 2016, 2017
Fifa Club World Cup: 2016, 2017
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
WITHIN%20SAND
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FINAL RESULT
Sharjah Wanderers 20 Dubai Tigers 25 (After extra-time)
Wanderers
Tries: Gormley, Penalty
cons: Flaherty
Pens: Flaherty 2
Tigers
Tries: O’Donnell, Gibbons, Kelly
Cons: Caldwell 2
Pens: Caldwell, Cross
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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Blonde
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
We Weren’t Supposed to Survive But We Did
We weren’t supposed to survive but we did.
We weren’t supposed to remember but we did.
We weren’t supposed to write but we did.
We weren’t supposed to fight but we did.
We weren’t supposed to organise but we did.
We weren’t supposed to rap but we did.
We weren’t supposed to find allies but we did.
We weren’t supposed to grow communities but we did.
We weren’t supposed to return but WE ARE.
Amira Sakalla
J%20Street%20Polling%20Results
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'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Rating: 1 out of 4
Running time: 81 minutes
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
RACE CARD
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA); Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA); Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB); Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA); Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA); Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA); Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T); 1,400m
The team
Photographer: Mateusz Stefanowski at Art Factory
Videographer: Jear Valasquez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Model: Randa at Art Factory Videographer’s assistant: Zanong Magat
Photographer’s assistant: Sophia Shlykova
With thanks to Jubail Mangrove Park, Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20specs
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
