The operation is a first in the country. Two Yemeni Siamese babies were successfully separated during a delicate operation in Jordan and their chance of survival is “excellent”, the head of the surgical team announced on Sunday.
This “rare and delicate operation” is the first of its kind in Jordan, added Dr. Fawzi al-Hammouri, director of the Amman Specialist Hospital where it took place. “It’s a medical success for the whole kingdom.” The intervention took place in July when the two Siamese were seven months old. But the medical team wanted to wait until they were out of danger before announcing it.
“Babies are very healthy”
“They were transferred to the intensive care unit and were on artificial respiration for a while. We wanted to be 100% sure that the operation was successful ”before reporting it, explained Dr. Hammouri, who preferred not to reveal the names of the babies.
“The babies are in very good health and they will be able to leave the Jordanian kingdom within two or three weeks,” said the head of the surgical team. “Their chance of survival is excellent and they are now out of danger. The operation was risky: it took eight hours to separate the two Siamese under the supervision of Professor Hammouri whose team consisted of 25 surgeons and technical advisers.
The two Siamese babies were evacuated with their parents last February on board a medical plane from Yemen, a poor country in the Arabian Peninsula where health services have been devastated by seven years of war between rebels and power. Born in mid-December in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the two boys were in critical condition.
“When they arrived in Jordan, the babies together weighed only 3.7 kilograms,” said Fawzi al-Hammouri. “We had to wait until their weight reached nine kilograms before proceeding with the operation. In February 2019, desperate Siamese babies died two weeks after their birth in Sana’a.
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