MANILA: As they prepare to travel to Riyadh next week for separation surgery, the parents of Olivia and Gianna Manuel have renewed hopes that their children will grow up like others, as they have become the fourth pair of Filipino twins to be taken care of by the Saudi Conjoined Twins Program.
The girls from the town of Talavera in the central Philippine province of Nueva Ecija were born in April 2024.
They are joined from the chest to the abdomen, a condition known as omphalopagus.
“They can’t eat properly. It’s really difficult for them. When one is lying down, the other often gets pinned down because the bigger one is very hyper. The smaller one is usually underneath,” the children’s mother, Ginalyn Manuel, told Arab News.
“When they’re lying down or sleeping, even if one still wants to sleep, she’s forced to wake up because the other keeps moving.”
