RIYADH, 3 December 2006 — The Iraqi conjoined twins Fatima and Zahra were successfully separated through a surgery performed by a team of experts headed by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, chief executive officer of the National Guard Health Affairs.
The 10-stage surgery started at 7.30 a.m. and ended at 8.15 last night at the National Guard Hospital. “Their condition is stable and they were laid on two separate beds for the first time,” Sami Al-Shalaan, director of public and media affairs at the hospital, told Arab News. He said the multidisciplinary team headed by Al-Rabeeah performed a rehearsal of the surgery on Wednesday to ensure everything would go smoothly.
The last two stages of the surgery were handled by Al-Rabeeah, Dr. Saud Al-Jadaan, Dr. Manaf Al-Azawi and Dr. Abdullah Al-Thunyan. Fatima and Zahra will be transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
The twins were brought to the Kingdom on Feb. 5 when they were 11 days old on a directive from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
“The surgical team had to wait for 10 months till it found the twins were fit for surgery,” he said, pointing out that at the time of admission they weighed only 3.2 kg and were deemed too frail to be operated upon. Their weight increased to 11.5 kg by the time they went under the knife. “The expected success rate of the separation is in the range of 60 percent because of the surface area and the condition of the twins,” said Al-Rabeeah prior to the procedure.
The twins were joined at the chest, abdomen and pelvis. They also shared one liver, one colon, one anus, one urinary system and one genital system. Each of the twins has only one kidney.
With the approval of the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information, the hospital arranged a live telecast of the surgery on all three Saudi network channels.
