Conjoined Nigerian twins, Hassanah and Hasina have been successfully seperated after a 14-hour operation in Saudi Arabia.
The surgery which lasted 14 hours was done on Thursday, May 18, 2023, at King Abdullah Specialist Hospital for Children, Saudi Arabia.
The procedure involved eight different phases and a team of 35 doctors, medical experts and nurses.
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, supervisor-general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, and leader of the surgical team, said following the separation, 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 in January 2022 at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, were conjoined at the abdomen, pelvis, liver, intestines, urinary and reproductive systems and pelvic bones areas.
They were moved to the National Hospital in Abuja, where they stayed for about eight months without undergoing surgery due to lack of funds.
The government of Saudi Arabia, however, offered free surgery to the family.
Hassana 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.
