Twins return to Egypt two years after separation

EGYPTIAN twins born joined at the top of the head have returned to their home country, still wearing protective helmets two years after a successful surgery in the US to separate them.

“The dream of my life, to hold each of them separately, has come true,” their mother Sabah Abu el-Wafa told reporters after the family landed in Cairo.

“I thank God for this miracle and thank everyone who helped us in Egypt and in the United States.”

Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrahim, four, were taken at the age of one to Dallas by the World Craniofacial Foundation, a Dallas-based non-profit group that helps children with deformities of the head and face.

More than 50 medical personnel took part in the 34-hour separation surgery in October 2003 at the Children’s Medical Centre in Dallas. Doctors had warned the surgery could result in the deaths of one or both boys.