The operation was successfully carried out on Friday at Riyadh’s King Abdul Aziz Medical City (KAMC).
Following instructions from King Abdullah, a medical team led by Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah successfully separated the twins, Zainab and Ruqiya, who are from the Iraqi city of Najaf. The twins were born on June 5 and brought to Riyadh on June 25. The operation involved nine phases and lasted for more than 10 hours.
In his message to King Abdullah, Al-Hisnawi appreciated the kindness and thanked the medical team headed by Al-Rabeeah for carrying out the operation.
“If it were not for the royal gesture, this poor family would not have been spared the lifelong misery because of the congenital physique of the twins,” the Iraqi minister said in a message.
“It’s a noble gesture which depicts the true tradition of Arab and Islamic brotherhood,” he added.
One of the twins, Ruqiya, had a major anomaly in her head known as a encephalocele — an extrusion of a large cyst filled with brain fluid, the brain stem and cerebellum. This anomaly created major difficulties and led to the twins experiencing respiratory arrest and slow heartbeats. The medical team agreed that this was endangering the life of the other twin, Zainab.
Last Monday, Al-Rabeeah announced that the twins would undergo emergency separation surgery since their health condition was critical.
In a medical report released 48 hours after the operation, Al-Rabeeah said the twins are in a stable condition with no signs of infection but are on artificial respirators.
“Both twins have opened their eyes and will gradually be weaned off the ventilator. Zainab has as expected increased brain fluid which requires drainage by neurosurgeons,” he said.
According to Dr. Hala Al-Alem, chief of the Intensive Pediatric Unit, the twins will be under intensive care for the next seven days and will be subsequently taken to the general ward depending on how well their condition improves.
The twins’ parents have also expressed their thanks to King Abdullah and the medical team for the separation.
The King Abdul Aziz Medical City has so far conducted 27 successful surgeries to separate conjoined twins from 16 different countries.
Earlier this year, a 70-strong team led by the minister successfully separated two conjoined Jordanian twins at the hospital. Three-month-old Mohammed and Amjad, who were joined at the abdomen and chest and shared a liver, a gall bladder and intestines, were separated after six hours of surgery.
Other twins were from Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Iraq, Oman, Cameroon and Syria. A number of Saudi conjoined twins have also been separated at the hospital.
