RIYADH: Surgery to separate Somali conjoined twins Rahma and Ramla is underway at the King Abdullah Specialized Children’s Hospital of the Ministry of the National Guard in Riyadh.
The children came with their parents to Saudi Arabia upon King Salman’s directives in May last year and were transferred to the hospital for tests to determine whether the operation would be safe.
An official of the Saudi Conjoined Twins Program told Arab News that in addition to the complexity of the intervention, there was also a waiting list of other children.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, who heads the SCTP’s teams and is also supervisor-general of the Saudi aid agency KSrelief, said the 13-month-old girls who arrived on May 6 were joined at the lower abdomen and pelvis.
“Each twin has two complete lower limbs, and they share a pelvic bone, colon and rectum, with overlaps in the urinary and reproductive systems,” said Al-Rabeeah.
