Saudi Doctors Separate Conjoined Jordan Twins

A team of Saudi doctors led by the country's health minister on Thursday successfully separated two baby boys from Jordan conjoined at the stomach in a seven-hour operation.

Ten-week-old Amjed and Mohammed Taim, born sharing a liver and other tissues, were separated in an operation at King Abdulaziz Medical Centre in Riyadh that was televised live back to Jordan.

"Five, four, three, two, one," Dr Abdullah Rabeeah, the Saudi health minister, counted down after using a laser knife to divide the boy's liver and then finally separate the remaining tissue between them.

"The operation is complete, both twins are now in separate beds, both are stable," he announced.

Two paediatric surgery teams then sewed the boys up and transferred them to the intensive care ward to recover.

The boys' parents were on hand for the operation, which was paid for by Saudi King Abdullah, who has sponsored most of the 27 successful operations to separate conjoined twins carried out at the Riyadh hospital.

"To tell you the truth, I'm afraid," confided father Yusuf Taim, a grocer in Al-Zarqa, northeast of Amman, as he watched the operation on closed circuit television.

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"But I put my faith in Allah to take care of it," Taim, who has four other children, told AFP.

Source-AFP
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