As an extension to the humanitarian initiatives adopted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince and the Deputy Crown Prince, and based on the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the conjoined twins multidisciplinary team scheduled the separation surgery for the Yemeni conjoined twins (Abdullah and Abdulaziz) on Friday: June 19th, 2015 in King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital at King Abdulaziz Medical City – Riyadh; which is expected to last up to 12 hours with the participation of nearly thirty specialists from Anesthesiology, Pediatrics Surgery , Pediatrics Urology, Orthopedics, Plastic Surgery, Nursing, technicians and assistants.
His Excellency, Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Advisor at the Royal Court, Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre and Head of the Surgical and Multidisciplinary Team stated that the separation surgery will be performed through 8 stages. He also added that Abdullah suffers from congenital defects in his head, heart, kidneys and hands which increases the risk on his life by more than 90%. Furthermore, Abdullah will also suffer after the surgery due to a severe atrophy of the brain and his life expectancy is very low.
Moreover, His Excellency expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for his continuous support and wished success upon this surgery.
For his part, the father of twins, Mr. Fathi Abdullah Hussein extended his gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud who facilitated the arrival of his family to the Kingdom under these difficult times of the Yemeni crisis, expressing his appreciation for what Kingdom offers from the humanitarian work towards the Yemeni people. He also extended his gratitude to His Excellency, Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah and the medical team for the attention and follow-up found since the twins were transferred from Yemen.
It is worth mentioning that the twins arrived to the Kingdom more than fifteen months ago and the twins underwent several tests and treatments in King Fahd Medical City and King Abdulaziz Medical City in the Ministry of National Guard – Riyadh. The tests shows that the twins share the lower part of the chest area, the abdomen and the pelvic. Each of the twin has a one lower limb, however, Abdulaziz has deformities in his upper limb.
It is noteworthy to mention that this conjoined twins operation marks the 37th of its kind for the Siamese Twins program in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.