Doctors Prepare For Weekend Separation Surgery

[TexasStooge]

DALLAS, Texas -- Doctors are expected to begin separating conjoined twins from Egypt in a marathons surgery at Children's Medical Center of Dallas.

The operation is scheduled to start sometime Saturday morning and could take up to 90 hours to complete.

The boys, named Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim, are joined at the head and share part of a critical vein that drains blood from the brain.

The boys were born in June 2001, delivered by Caesarian section in a remote Egyptian village 300 miles south of Cairo. Doctors there had never seen conjoined twins.

''They present a lot of challenges to us since they were born," neonatal surgeon Dr. Nasser Abdel Al said.

Ahmed and Mohamed were taken immediately to a hospital at Cairo University where doctors turned to craniofacial experts in Dallas for advice.

X-rays didn't give enough information, so the World Craniofacial Foundation paid for the babies to come to Dallas for evaluation.

"We knew they'd be in the best hands," Abdel Al said.

Ahmed and Mohamed were a year old when their father, mother, sister and brother said goodbye.

Two nurses and three doctors came to the United States with the boys, who remained calm and curious during the long trip to Texas.

''It's our opinion that they could potentially be surgically separated," craniofacial surgeon Dr. Kenneth Salyer said.

But a barrage of tests and scans, studies and evaluations at north Texas Hospital For Children revealed the monumental task surgeons would face.

"There is extensive intermingling -- which then makes separation very tenuous, very hazardous," Salyer said.

The boys have separate brains but 3-D models show what blood should flow out of each boy instead flows between them through their shared vein.

So far, 60 infants have been joined in a similar way, and only seven lived normally.

''We know from history that the children who have been separated, the success rate overall for survival is less than 10 percent, so we have a formidable challenge for all of our team," Salyer said.

While the teams from Medical City Dallas and Children's Medical Center worked for months plotting their surgical strategy, the twins thrived.

They moved into an apartment with their nurses, they went shopping, they learned how to maneuver even in their awkward attachment, and they developed independence -- critical to survival as separate children.

The twin's father came to Dallas last fall for face-to-face updates about the risks of separation surgery.

Ibrahim Mohamed Ibrahim urged doctors to proceed.

''I always hoped for my children to be normal in a normal society," Mohamed Ibrahim said.

Preparations for the surgery have been under way for months.

The twins started wearing specially designed helmets in April to help correct the flatness of their skulls.

Skin expanders were put in place in late spring to create enough skin for surgeons to use once separation occurs. On their second birthday in June, Ahmed and Mohamed blew bubbles and giggled: a happy birthday in two languages, and best wishes that two precious children who came here on one passport will return home to Egypt with two.

All hospital related costs and the doctors' fees are being donated by Medical City Dallas Hospital.

More than $200,000 has been donated by the community to help with the surgical expenses while the children are at Children's Medical Center.

[TexasStooge]

Separation was a complete success!

Within over 30 hours of hard work, they have 2 boys! Doctors still need to keep an eye out for the twins.

[southerngale]

Yeah, I heard about this on the news. So glad it was a success!!

[ColdFront77]

Wonderful news... hopefully all goes well for these twin boys.

Does anyone happen to know what the record number of days,
so far, Siamese twins have survived after a 'successful operation.'