Saturday 10 April 2010

Gaza's first conjoined twins die in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah said Saturday that the conjoined Palestinian twins who were flown to Riyadh from the Gaza Strip to be separated have died.

On Friday evening, the minister said the girls, Rital and Ritaj, could not be separated and did not have long to live.

Al-Rabeeah said that testsand x-rays showed they suffered from severe bacterial chest infection.


The twins were born on March 27, the first ever in the impoverished Gaza
Strip, and doctors there lacked the resources to treat them. They requested help from Saudi Arabia, which has world renowned facilities for separating conjoined twins.

Saudi King Abdullah heard about the twins through the media and ordered they be brought to the kingdom for surgery. The king has funded such surgeries in the kingdom from other parts of the world.

The twins ran into obstacles in getting there. They had to obtain passports from the rival Palestinian government in the West Bank, permission from Israel and approval from the Egyptian government to open the border out of Gaza.

The twins were treated at the National Guard hospital in Riyadh by a top
flight medical team, said the health minister
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1161993.html


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