More conjoined twins await surgery

Sunday, April 17, 2016

VETERAN TEAM: A team of surgeons headed by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah is known the world over for its expertise in separating conjoined twins

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Doctors from Saudi Arabia are currently studying cases of conjoined twins from Somalia, Sudan and Morocco to determine which case should be given priority.

The Kingdom and its leaders have always responded to calls for help, whether from an individual or a state. As such, the Kingdom has become a major attraction for those who cannot afford treatment for these rare medical cases.

Cases of conjoined twins are rare, with one case per 200,000 people.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, adviser at the Royal Court and chief of the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid, told SPA that the cost of the separation surgery is between SR300,000 and SR1 million and the Kingdom bears the entire cost of surgery, the stay of the families, follow-up of the conjoined children for more than a year, even after they go back to their home countries.

He said that the medical team, which performs surgeries on conjoined children, was currently studying the cases from Somalia, Sudan and Morocco. He said that the list of requests was long, but that there were no such cases in the Kingdom.

He said the Kingdom is proud to have a medical team specialized in separating conjoined twins. The team comprises 70 doctors and technicians who are fully prepared to do surgery of this type at any time. Ninety-five percent of the team which carried out surgery on the most recently separated twins, Pakistani Mashael and Fatima, was Saudi

Al-Rabeeah revealed that there was interest in research and training of more national cadre to increase the number of experts of such surgeries. He said that the Kingdom does not prohibit the presence of any doctor at these surgeries and from participating in it.

Video feeds from the surgeries are directly transmitted to various medical centers and universities in the United States, Europe and Asia through the Internet, so that others also can learn from the experiences.

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