Conjoined twins separated in successful operation

AN operation to separate conjoined twins that took place after an appeal for help by a British charity has been a success, doctors said yesterday.

Ahmed and Mohammed Rosli were last night recovering in hospital in Saudi Arabia after a 23-hour operation to separate them. The children, aged four-and-a-half, were operated on in Riyadh’s King Fahad Hospital after Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz saw an appeal by a British charity on the children’s behalf and broadcast on Sky News last month.

Ahmed and Mohammed, originally from Malaysia, were joined at the chest, abdomen and pelvis and shared a liver, colon and small intestine.

They were seen by Professor Lewis Spitz, an expert on separating conjoined twins, at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. He offered to operate on them for free, but £150,000 was needed for the hospital facilities and nursing care. Essex-based charity HAPEE (Humanitarian Aid Project for Eastern Europe), which had already promised the twins a specially adapted wheelchair and walking frame, made an appeal for those funds on Sky News. George Henry, from the charity, said: “We are just a small charity and there was no way we could raise that. When we got a phone call from the Saudi Embassy telling us of the Crown Prince’s offer, I nearly fell out of my wheelchair.”