Americans help finance equipmentSiamese twins under care [Archives:2004/800/Community]

By Nasser Abdullah Salah
For the Yemen Times
According to recent reports, the Yemeni-born Siamese twins continue to receive medical treatment that are keeping them alive and may lead to surgery to separate them.
The twins were born in Shabwa. Joined, they have four ribs in the left side and five in the right one forming a single chest box attached to two backbones. They have two livers and three kidneys besides the other organs including the spleen, two legs and the urogenital apparatus.
Dr. Saleh A. Al-Hemsi, Head of the Pediatrics Dep't in Attaq Central Hospital, said that such congenial deformities are likely to appear on in every 50,000 births. The reason for such cases is that the egg isn't divided inside the womb properly, therefore two babies developed in one placenta.
The mother has suffered from four miscarriages. She got some medicine and hormones for securing pregnancy.
Following directives of the President, a medical team consisting of a number of specialized doctors arrived in the hospital to diagnose the case as the first of its kind in Yemen and the rare one worldwide.
A press conference was held after when doctors said the twins are a complete female infant and another incomplete one with only a head, a backbone, two livers, and two stomachs.
The intervention of surgery is not possible before 9 -12 months. They confirmed the necessity of the medical care till that age.
After a week of the birth, Dr. Aref Banafe'e and Dr. Al-Hemsi visited the infant offering some medicine. Dr. Al-Hemsi mentioned that Mohammed Al-Qatta'a, Head of the Central Medical Team, said that they agreed to transport the infant to Sana'a on Dec.12.
Dr. Aref Banafe'e declared that he has received a baby's incubator for the newly born children and a number of people are being trained in Al-Sabe'en Hospital in Sana'a in order to be qualified in dealing with the incubator unit and the intensive care.
There are a lot of procedures aiming at developing the hospital; an operation room with recent technological equipment financed by an American company at the cost of $ 140,000 is to be prepared.
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