Little fighters to return home within weeks

THE parents of Ireland’s conjoined twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, who were separated in complex surgery in London in early April, hope to have their precious sons home in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork within a matter of weeks.

The twins, aged five months, were moved from their intensive care unit to a normal ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London on May 1 – weeks earlier than expected by their medical team.

Doctors continue to be pleased with their progress.

The babies are now able to breathe unaided and feed from a bottle.

Their mother Angie Benhaffaf compared having the opportunity to bring her precious boys home to a Lotto win.

“I felt all the hope and all the prayers of everyone had paid off. It feels like a miracle. We cannot believe we got our happy ending.”

Earlier this month Angie Benhaffaf told the ITV documentary Separate Lives of the first scan she had during her pregnancy and the devastating impact it had on the family.

“Malika (the boys’ sister) wanted to go to the bathroom at that exact time that I was called in so I told the lady, the scan lady, wait for my husband to come back and she said, ‘shall we get started’, so she put the gel on me and she started scanning.

“She said, ‘I’m actually seeing two babies, it’s twins’. And I was delighted, twins you know, two for the price of one, but her face wasn’t getting happy saying ‘twins’ and she said, ‘I’m seeing something I’ve never seen before, the babies are joined together.’ And I broke my heart crying and Azzedine came in to the room and I was absolutely hysterical.”

Her husband Azzedine Benhaffaf said after the “bombshell” was dropped the couple experienced a “terrifying, scary time”.

However, the second scan a few months later brought better news as doctors saw two hearts which meant the boys had a chance of survival.

The brothers were born in December at University College London Hospital. They spent a few months in the family home with their parents and siblings Malika and two-year-old Iman prior to the surgery.

The Benhaffafs have sworn to give their boys the best opportunities in life.

Azzedine Benhaffaf says he just wants his precious boys to have happy lives.

“The only thing I want to do is make them happy, see them playing on top of me like other kids, see them talking to their sisters, going to school together, swimming together. That’s the only thing I want… I will do everything for them until the end, I will never give up.”

Conjoined twins are identical twins whose bodies are joined in utero. A rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. The condition is more frequently found among females, with a ratio of 3:1.

* Fundraising is continuing for the Benhaffaf family.

Little Fighters fund account, Permanent TSB’s Patrick Street branch in Cork: sort code 99-07-03 and account no: 16556196.