MAKKAH, 22 January 2005 — Crown Prince Abdullah has directed officials to study the case of conjoined twins who were born in Hera General Hospital in Makkah.
The twins, who were born on Tuesday to Saudi parents, share the same body but have separate heads in what was described as a rare case in the Kingdom.
Prince Abdullah asked officials to explore the possibility of conducting an operation to separate the twins at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh by a medical team led by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, the Saudi Press Agency said.
Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie commended Prince Abdullah’s initiative.
The twins, who weigh two kilograms, have two stomachs but share an abdomen, two arms and two legs, and some internal and external organs. They each have a heart, their own respiratory system and spinal cord but it is joined at the lower back.
Al-Manie described the case as rare, occurring only once in every 50,000 child births.
Nine operations to separate conjoined twins have so far been performed in the Kingdom by Dr. Rabeah’s team.
