Ambassador highlights humanitarian work of Kingdom
Rizwan Haider
ISLAMABAD: With the special assistance provided by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Specialist Hospital in a successfully surgery separated Pakistani conjoined twin sisters.
According to details, Ambassador of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Pakistan his Excellency Nawaf Ahmad Al-Malkiy while addressing to media men on Thursday said that the twins ‘Fatima and Mashal’ arrived in Riyadh with their parents on the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holly Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz. The medical and surgical teams were able to separate the conjoined twins in a process that lasted about five hours.
He briefed that Saudi Arabia’s aid and assistance has stretched all through the world, regardless of religious, ethnic and radical differences. He said that the suffering of conjoined children has driven the Kingdom to include separation of the conjoined twins in its humanitarian assistance role. While telling about the details of such operations, he said that Kingdom has so far conducted a total of 40 successful operations. He said that it is pleasing that Kingdom has brought smiles to the lives of a number of conjoined children from 19 different countries around the world. The cost f a single operation is between 300,000 and one million Saudi riyals, but Kingdom pays all the expenses of treatment including accommodation for the family and a more than a year follow-up treatment of conjoined children even after they return home with their parents.
He said that Kingdom is proud of the presence of a Saudi medical team specialized in the conduct of separation of conjoined twins, consisting 70 doctors and technicians. The conjoined twins are one of the rare cases in the world that takes place in one out of 200,000 people.
Father of the two sisters successfully operated and separated ‘ Nisar Ghani’ is a farmer living in Sawat Pakistan, while talking to media persons he said that he could not have afforded the expenses of such complicated and expensive treatment if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not have helped him. He was very emotional in his speech and warmly thanked and appreciated humanitarian services of the Kingdom.
