Team of 28 Saudi doctors successfully separate Yemeni Siamese twins

A team of 28 Saudi doctors have successfully separated Yemeni Siamese twins in a five-hour surgery, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

Mawaddah and Rahma were separated without any complications and are in very good health condition, according to the SPA report.

This is apparently the 52nd time that Siamese twins have been successfully separated in the Kingdom, the head of the medical team Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah was quoted as saying by SPA.

The father of the twins, Hudhayfa Noman, extended his thanks and gratitude to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for sponsoring these humanitarian efforts.

He also thanked the medical team who performed the separation procedure.

The female twins were born connected through the lower chest and abdomen areas.

Conjoined twins are identical twins joined in utero. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births.

In May, doctors in Saudi Arabia separated conjoined twins from war-torn Yemen after a “complicated” 15-hour operation, SPA reported at the time.

The boys, Yussef and Yassin, were “conjoined in several organs,” and some 24 doctors were involved in the operation to separate them, SPA said.

The report added that one of the twins died on the second day of surgery due to a severe drop in blood circulation and heart failure, despite the full medical care provided to him.

Saudi Arabia regularly performs surgeries to separate conjoined twins from Yemen.