Separated Sudanese conjoined twins moved to pediatric ward

RIYADH: On the recommendations of chief surgeon Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the separated Sudanese conjoined twins were moved to the pediatric ward following a week’s treatment in the intensive care unit at the hospital in Riyadh.

The twins, Rammah and Waddah, were successfully separated a week ago in an 11-hour surgery performed by a medical team led by Al-Rabeeah at the King Abdullah Specialty Children’s Hospital, King Abdul Aziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard-Health Affairs in the capital.

The conjoined twins, together with their parents, were flown to the Kingdom from Khartoum weeks ago. 

The multidisciplinary medical team, which performed the separation, comprised 28 doctors from various medical specialties such as anesthesia, pediatric surgery, pediatric urology, plastic surgery, and pediatric orthopedic surgery, plus nursing and support departments.

On admission to the pediatric ward, Al-Rabeeah said that all vital signs are stable and that the twins have begun to consume food normally. "Both will undergo physiotherapy and rehabilitation treatment for a couple of weeks to reach full recovery,” the surgeon added.

Prior to the surgery, the twins, who weighed 18 kg, were joined at the abdomen and pelvis, and each twin had



one lower limb in addition to sharing a deformed third limb. The success rate of the surgery was predicted at 70 percent prior to the operation. 

Haroun Ishak, the father of the twins, said his family is grateful to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and thankful to the medical team which was ably led by Al-Rabeeah, a former health of minister of the Kingdom, for helping give the infants a new lease of life.

The parents’ passage to and from Riyadh, their accommodation charges while in the Kingdom and all medical expenses related to the surgery were borne by the government as a humanitarian gesture on the directive of King Salman.

This was the 42nd case to be separated by the Saudi team and it also marked the 24th case of conjoined twins to be separated by a Saudi multidisciplinary team which has reviewed 97 cases from 19 countries since 1999.

Saudi Arabia has a team of top surgeons specializing in the separation of twins with the experience of treating a good number of twins from several countries. Besides the Kingdom, the twins came from Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Morocco and Iraq.

In 2014, a pair of Sudanese conjoined twins, Mamdooh and Mahmood, were successfully separated here.