Conjoined Nigerian twins separated after 14-hour surgery in Saudi Arabia

A team of surgeons in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, successfully separated Nigerian conjoined twins Hassanah and Hussaina.

The surgery began on Thursday at the King Abdullah Specialist Hospital for Children, Riyadh and was said to have lasted for 14 hours.

The procedure involved eight different phases and a team of 35 doctors, medical experts and nurses.

The leader of the surgical team and supervisor-general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, said following the separation that the reconstruction process has begun.

“We still have a couple of hours left for the reconstruction process, but thanks God the decisive phase has passed,” he said.

The twins, who were born on January 12, 2022 at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, shared an abdomen, pelvis, liver, intestines, urinary and reproductive systems.

They were moved to the National Hospital in Abuja, where they stayed for about eight months without undergoing surgery due to lack of funds.

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The government of Saudi Arabia, however, offered free surgery to the family.

Hassanah and Hussaina, accompanied by their parents, arrived in Saudi Arabia on December 8, 2022, on an air medical evacuation plane.

The twins’ separation is the 56th carried out by Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian programme in 33 years.

Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian initiatives have previously assisted with 130 cases of conjoined twins from 23 countries over a period of 33 years, and

Hassanah and Hussaina are the 56th set of twins to be separated under the programme.