Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Nigerian conjoined twins — Hasna and Hasina — arrived at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Monday Night. Accompanied by their parents, the twins were airlifted from Nigeria on board a medical evacuation plane of the Ministry of Defense. This was in implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

Upon their arrival, the twins were transferred to King Abdullah Children’s Specialist Hospital under the Ministry of National Guard to carry out the necessary medical checkups and to examine the possibility of conducting their successful surgical separation.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, advisor at the Royal Court, general supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) and head of the medical team, expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to King Salman and the Crown Prince for their utmost keenness and support for the humanitarian work in general and the Saudi Program for the Separation of Conjoined Twins in particular. “This program embodies Saudi Arabia’s medical excellence in the surgical separation of conjoined twins, and this comes in line with the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, to develop the health sector in the Kingdom and place it at the forefront of countries in the world,” he said.

The KSRelief undertakes treatment of conjoined twins, within the framework of the humanitarian role it plays in harnessing its efforts to manage and coordinate relief work and meet the expenses of their surgical separation free of charge.

Meanwhile, the parents of the Nigerian twins expressed their sincere thanks and gratitude to King Salman and the Crown Prince for the warm reception and hospitality accorded to them since their arrival in the Kingdom. They prayed to God Almighty to protect the Saudi leadership and bestow them with the best reward, and to preserve and perpetuate the safety and security of Saudi Arabia.

It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia continues to remain on top of the countries in the world in the number of operations carried out to separate conjoined twins. Over the course of the past 33 years, the Saudi Program for the Separation of Conjoined Twins was able to follow up 133 cases of conjoined twins from 24 countries and has been successful in conducting surgical separation of 59 conjoined twins, of which the last case was that of Tanzanian conjoined twins — Hassan and Hussein— who were separated successfully after a complex operation that took 16 hours over nine stages on Oct. 5 this year.