Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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Pediatric Surgeons At Alexandria's Shatby Hospital Successfully Separate Conjoined Twins

A rare congenital occurrence with a litany of complications.

Staff Writer

Last Thursday, a medical team spearheaded by a professor of pediatric surgery and congenital anomalies – Dr. Sabed Waheeb – has successfully managed to separate two infant twins joined at the chest. The twins’ shared an adhered pleura lung lining, a heart (which typically had congenital defects), the diaphragm as well as the liver and the small intestine. The rare and taxing procedure took place at the Shatby University Hospital in Alexandria.

A rare phenomenon to be sure, conjoined (or Siamese) twins have always been a subject of contention, intrigue and moral dilemmas; with a large number of separation surgeries usually ending in the death of one or both twins. Medical personnel are often faced with a choice of which child to save, should the former be the case.

Luckily, the case over in Alexandria wasn’t so severe; with a cast of expert pediatric anesthesiology experts and pediatric surgeons, both siblings are now on their way to recovery. “The separation surgery was done after scans and tests were made on the twins. The twins are now in stable condition in the intensive care unit,” said Dr. Saber Waheed.

Being only the 5th case of its kind in the past decade in the hospital’s operative history, cases such as these present a wealth of necessary training and information for medical personnel, in an effort to hone their skills in for similar procedures in the future.