Ministry of Health calls on UN to save life of conjoined twins
SANAA, Dec. 17 (YPA) -Newly born conjoined twins were born at Al-Sabeen Maternal Hospital in the capital Sanaa on Thursday. The siblings are in urgent need of treatment abroad.
Dr. Mutahar Abbas Al-Marwani, Director General of the Health Office in the capital, has called on the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and all international organisations urgently intervene to save the lives of the newly born Siamese twins, because their condition is serious and unstable.
Al-Marwani said, in a statement, that the Siamese twins who were born today are in need for an urgent surgical intervention to save their lives. However, there are no means or specialised centers to carry out such operations inside Yemen, and it is impossible to bring them outside of Yemen because of the blockade and the closure of Sanaa airport.
The doctor further called on the United Nations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and international medical organisations to send a plane to rescue the twins and transfer them to one of the international centers specialised in these operations or to send a medical team to perform the surgery inside Yemen.
Dr. Magda Al Khatib, director of the hospital, explained that the birth of the Siamese twins is the first case seen in the past three years, and the second of its kind in 20 years, a rare condition that occurs in every 189,000 births worldwide.
She said the birth was successful under the supervision of Yemeni medical staff. She noted that the mother’s condition is stable, but the twins are in critical condition and have been placed in the care nursery.
Al-Khatib called on the United Nations and the WHO to lift the blockade imposed by the coalition countries and to open Sanaa International Airport to the many thousands of patients who need to travel for treatment abroad.
The rate of postnatal death, congenital deformity or death of fetuses in their mothers’ wombs has increased all over the country, due to the use of internationally banned biological weapons used by the Saudi-led coalition on the border province of Saada, northern Yemen.
According to the medical sources, the malformation cases are likely to continue exacerbating due to the collapse of the health system in Yemen as a result of the direct bombardment targeting health facilities.
E.M