Conjoined Twins Doing Great After Surviving 9-Hour Separation Surgery
In Saudi Arabia, a pair of conjoined twins survived a rare surgery to separate them after a team of medical personnel operated on them for more than nine-hours. Prior to the surgery, Abdullah and Abdulrahman shared the same chest wall, lungs, pericardial sac (the lining of the heart), diaphragm, liver, intestines, colon and pelvis; and to complete the operation, 28 medical personnel participated in the surgery.
Remarkably, the risky procedure was the first time twins conjoined at the chest and abdomen have been successfully separated. In fact, surgeons initially gave the twin boys a 60% to 70% chance of survival.
According to the Daily Mail, the team consisted of Dr. Al-Rabeeah, Saudi consultants in anaesthesiology, paediatric, orthopaedic, plastic surgery and urinary tract surgery as well as nursing and technical staff.
A hospital spokesperson commented on the surgery and said, “The bowels needed to be separated as well as their urinary systems and then the pelvic bones. When they were separated they were then divided into two teams to reconstruct the twins.”
Now the boys are being cared for in the pediatric intensive care unit at the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery.
As LifeNews previously reported, just last week conjoined twins Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata survived surgery to separate several of their major organs including lungs, liver, intestines, colon, pelvis and lining of the heart. The ten-month-old girls underwent a complex 26-hour operation at Texas Children’s Hospital where a team of 12 surgeons, six anesthesiologists and eight surgical nurses carried out the surgery. The twins are now recovering in the intensive care unit of the hospital and may have to undergo further procedures.
After the surgery, their mother, Elysse, said she is eternally grateful that her two girls can now live their own lives without the challenges of being connected. She said, “We know how much planning and time went into this surgery and we are so blessed to be at a place like Texas Children’s where we have access to the surgeons and caretakers that have made this dream a reality.”
She concluded, “We also want to express our gratitude to all of the people that have prayed and provided support to our family over the last 10 months.” To prepare for the major surgery earlier this month, both Knatalye and Adeline underwent a five-hour procedure in December to place custom-made tissue expanders into their chest and abdomen.
