ISLAMABAD, Jan 13 (APP): Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Said Al Maliki on Friday expressed pleasure and gratitude to Allah Almighty for the successful surgery of Iraqi conjoined twins in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Taking to his Twitter handle, he said, “In the humanitarian country – Saudi Arabia, the successful operation of conjoined Iraqi twins ‘Umar and Ali’ lasted 11 hours.”
According to the Saudi Press Agency, a specialist team of surgeons successfully completed the surgery to separate Iraqi conjoined twins Ali and Omar in Riyadh on Thursday.
The operation, which took 11 hours and consisted of six phases, was completed by a 27-member team of consultants, specialists, nursing, and technical staff, and based on directives from King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The team managed to separate the twins, who were conjoined at the lower chest and abdomen and shared liver, bile ducts, and intestines.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the adviser at the Royal Court and supervisor general of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, said that “this operation comes in implementation of the generous directives of the Saudi leadership,” making it the 54th such procedure of the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme.
Al-Rabeeah, who is also head of the medical team, said the Saudi program had been able to operate on 127 conjoined twins from 23 countries during the past 32 years, and stressed the Kingdom’s pioneering role in humanitarian work in general and medical work in particular.
He thanked the medical team who performed the surgery for their efforts adding that the achievement reflected the leadership’s willingness to help people.
He said it was also an indication of Saudi medical excellence and was in line with the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to develop the country’s health sector and advance its quality and efficiency.
The Iraqi ambassador to the Kingdom Abdul-Sattar Hadi Al-Janabi appreciated the unlimited humanitarian support and efforts provided by the Saudi government and praised the efforts of the medical team led by Al-Rabeeah.
He also expressed his joy at the twins’ successful separation surgery.
Ali and Omar’s parents extended their thanks and gratitude to the king and crown prince for the surgery, and for providing their children with all necessary treatment.
Last week, the surgical team has also successfully separated Saudi conjoined twins who were attached at the hip and shared a spinal cord in an operation that lasted seven hours over seven stages.
The surgery, which was carried out under directives from King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, required 28 consultants, specialists, and nursing and technical personnel.
Earlier last month, Nigerian conjoined twins Hassana and Hussaina arrived in Saudi Arabia for a ‘delicate’ separation procedure being carried out free of charge on the directives of King Salman.
Nigeria’s envoy to the Kingdom Yahaya Lawal said the monarch had sent a flying ambulance to transport the twins and their parents to Riyadh, where the surgery would take place.
The twins, born in a hospital to a Nigerian couple, shared vital organs, including a liver.
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