LIVE: Medical team separates Tanzanian conjoined twins in Saudi Arabia
SAUDI ARABIA: A medical team, headed by Advisor at the Royal Court and General Supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), Dr Abdullah Al Rabeeah in Saudi Arabia has started a 16-hours operation to separate Tanzanian conjoined twins.
The surgical operation is being broadcast live from King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital in the King Abdulaziz Medical City under the Ministry of National Guard.
LIVE :https://www.youtube.com/live/i8Z-wPpvdKU?si=l0ol_UJuSkyxs0__
The operation which kicked off at around 6 am on Thursday is performed over nine phases with a team of 35 doctors, specialists, technical and nursing staff.
The two-year-old twins, Hassan and Hussein Omari accompanied by their mother left Tanzania to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 23 August, 2023.
After their arrival, the twins were transferred to King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital to carry out the necessary medical checkups and to examine the possibility of conducting their successful surgical separation.
Before being flown to Saudi Arabia, the conjoined twins were admitted to Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) for about two years.
“Multiple medical checkups were carried out and it was found that the twins share the lower chest, abdomen, and pelvis area, and each has one lower limb, and they share a third, deformed lower limb…They are also joined in the liver, intestines, urinary system, and have one male reproductive organ, and are deformed in the lower abdominal wall and urinary bladder,” said , Dr Al Rabeeah during a press briefing in Dar es Salaam.
It is noteworthy that the KSRelief undertakes treatment of conjoined twins, within the framework of the humanitarian role it plays in harnessing its efforts to manage and coordinate relief work and meets the expenses of their surgical separation free of charge.
Saudi Arabia continues to remain the topper among the countries of the world in the number of operations carried out to separate conjoined twins.
Over the course of the past 33 years since 1990, the Saudi Program for the Separation of Conjoined Twins was able to follow up 133 cases of conjoined twins from 24 countries and has been succeeded in conducting successful surgical separation of 58 conjoined twins, with the Tanzanian twins being the 59th case.
