RIYADH, 15 March 2008 — Conjoined twins from Iraq would be brought to the Kingdom in the hope of successfully separating them at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, head of National Guard Health Affairs, announced here yesterday.
“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has given his instructions to bring the Iraqi twins, host their parents and conduct necessary tests on the two children at the hospital in order to study prospects of separating them,” said Al-Rabeeah, who heads the team of surgeons that has separated a number of conjoined twins at the hospital in recent years.
Al-Rabeeah praised the king for his humanitarian gesture. “This reflects the king’s love and care for people in other parts of the world,” he added.
The conjoined baby boys were born in the city of Mosul through a caesarian section at Al-Kansa Teaching Hospital. Al-Rabeeah pointed out, adding the twins are in a stable condition.
In November the team headed by Rabeeah successfully carried out, on the directives of the king, a separation surgery on conjoined Iraqi twins Fatima and Zahra. They were joined at the chest, abdomen and pelvis and they had one leg each. The twins were born in Fatima Al-Zahra Hospital in Baghdad’s Sadr City on Jan. 25, 2007.
Rabeeah performed the first conjoined twin separation operation in the Kingdom on Dec. 31, 1990, at Riyadh’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The operation, which was successful, was performed on Saudi female twins joined at the stomach. Since then 12 sets of conjoined twins have been successfully separated in the Kingdom, the most recent nine at King Abdul Aziz Medical City at the expense of King Abdullah.
