Conjoined Twins Separated
After the successful and amazing operation performed in Saudi Arabia.....medical experts, reporters and even world leaders had much to talk about.
It is noteworthy that the National Guard Health Affairs (NHGA Medical City-Riyadh) have successfully separated 12 sets of conjoined twins, which secured it an established reputation in this kind of delicate surgeries due to its great human and technological resources. The NHGA Medical City has become the destination of everybody inside or outside the Kingdom, interested in receiving state-of-the-art medical treatment.
3 Years Ago - This Month (April 2010) -
Director of CBC Health Service, Dr. Tih, showered praises on the Minister of Public Health and his colleagues of Social Affairs, the medical team that conducted the surgery, the custodians of the two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and Drs. Thomas and Edith Welty for their enormous contributions to the success story.
The twins are known as Pheinbom and Shevoboh. They are expected back in Saudi Arabia next year for a medical check-up.The parents James Akumbo, 48, and Emmerencia Nyumek Akumbo 40, both farmers, have 10 children.
A pair of conjoined twins, who were born at the Baptist Centre in Kwighe, Small Babanki Tungoh, in the Northwest Province on February 5, 2006 and separated in Saudi Arabia, is back home.
Conjoined twins before and after successful separation in Saudi Arabia
A cross-section of the population of Bamenda, Friday, July 27, jammed the premises of the Cameroon Baptist Convention in Nkwen to welcome the healthy looking female twins. At birth, it was discovered that the twins were joined at the lower sternum through the pelvis facing each other.
The babies were referred from their small remote village to Mbingo Baptist Hospital shortly after birth and were discharged on February 14, 2006.The ultrasound evaluation by medical doctors indicated that they had only one portal vein (a critical vein through the liver), but separate hearts, lungs and kidneys.
The twins had two normal legs each and one abnormal leg with 10 toes.Faced with this abnormality, the hospital staff decided to provide medical, psychosocial and spiritual support to the family.
Both twins gained weight and did remarkably well during their first year because of the excellent care provided by the family and health care providers.This wasn't enough. The Director of the CBC Health Services, Dr. Pius Tih, reported the birth of the conjoined twins to Public Health Minister, Urbain Olanguena Awono and later took the babies to him in July 2006.
The Minister is reported to have given instructions for visas and initiated an evacuation, offered financial assistance to move the babies to a South African hospital for separation. Many health institutions in US, Europe and South Africa were contacted, but none were able to provide separation to the twins without upfront payment of FCFA 35 million.
When Cameroonian health authorities discovered from a website that doctors in Saudi Arabia had separated 13 sets of conjoined twins successfully, Dr. Abdullah AI Rabeeah, head of the Medical and Surgical Team was contacted.
The King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh of Saudi Arabia agreed to evacuate the twins at no charge. The King of Saudi Arabia is reported to have paid for the flight tickets of the twins and their parents to Saudi Arabia and foot the medical and surgical bills.
Thus, on March 23, 2007, the twins and their parents flew to Saudi Arabia where they were successfully separated on April 12 after 16 hours of operation.Speaking at the reception offered in honour of the twins, the representative of Northwest Governor, Alfred Muluh Takwi, said the financial sacrifice of over FCFA 36 million incurred by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz is glaring that assistance and medical care has no political or racial colour.
Previous cases of separating conjoined twins in Jeddah, KSA up until the time of this operation include:
- Saudi male twins in late 1990
- Sudanese female twins (Samah and Hiba) in 1992
- Saudi female twins in 1995
- Saudi male twins (Hassan and Hussein) in 1998
- Sudanese female twins (Naglaa and Naseeba) in 2002
- Malaysian male twins (Ahmad and Mohammad) in 2003
- Egyptian female twins ( Talya and Taleen) in 2003
- Filipino female twins (Princess Ann and Princess May) in 2004
- Polish female twins ( Daria and Olga) in 2005
- Egyptian female twins ( Alaa and Walaa) in 2005
- Moroccan female twins (Hafsa and Elham) in 2006
- Iraqi female twins (Fatima and Zahra)
