JEDDAH, 30 September 2003 — A pair of Siamese twins from Egypt are undergoing a series of tests at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh in preparation for an operation to separate the baby girls.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeea, executive director of health affairs at the National Guard, announced yesterday that the operation would be held at the medical city on Saturday.
He said a 45-member medical team including 19 specialists would take part in the complicated operation.
The twins — Taliya and Taleen — arrived in Riyadh last week after Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, directed Saudi doctors to conduct the operation here at his personal expense.
This is the seventh operation on Siamese twins to be conducted by Saudi doctors led by Dr. Rabeea. Last year, the team successfully separated twins from Malaysia. Other cases were from Sudan and the Kingdom.
Reem Abdul Kareem, the mother of the twins, and Ahmad Sameer, their father, thanked the crown prince for his humanitarian gesture and expressed their confidence in the Saudi medical team.
Egyptian Ambassador Muhammad Rafeeq Khaleel hailed the gesture and said it showed the Saudi leadership’s commitment to helping those in need. The operation to separate the Egyptian twins was to cost SR200,000.
“The successful operations Saudi doctors have conducted to separate Siamese twins in the past have won international acclaim for the Kingdom,” the ambassador said.
Reem, 30, a graduate of the department of business administration at the American University of Cairo, said she was anxious to see her babies after the delivery but the doctor allowed her to see them only after three days.
“They said the babies were in the nursing room. On the third day I insisted the doctor show them to me,” Reem told Al-Watan daily. She said she was taken aback when she saw that her daughters were joined.
Sami Al-Shoalan, director of public relations and health information at the National Guard, said the last operation on the Malaysian twins — Ahmed and Muhammad — took 17 hours.
