Conjoined twins Azaria and Azora departed Jamaica on Sunday for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the place they’re scheduled to endure a life-changing separation surgical procedure.
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The 20-month-old toddlers, accompanied by their mom Iesha McMurray and a crew of medical professionals, left the island on a Medevac flight from Norman Manley Worldwide Airport in Kingston. Following a short stopover in the UK, they’re anticipated to reach in Riyadh on Monday.
The twins, who’re joined on the stomach—a situation generally known as Omphalopagus that happens in roughly one in each 50,000 to 150,000 stay births—have been receiving care on the College Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) since delivery attributable to numerous problems, together with congenital coronary heart defects.
Their switch was made potential by an settlement between the Saudi authorities and UHWI, with assist from Jamaica’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs and Overseas Commerce. Amongst these current to see the household off on the airport had been Odane Elson, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, and Jamaica’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Dr. Waleed Bin Abdulrahman Alhamoudi.
Azaria and Azora will endure intensive assessments earlier than the extremely complicated operation, which is scheduled to happen inside two months on the King Abdullah Specialist Youngsters’s Hospital in Riyadh. Their surgical procedure falls beneath the Saudi Programme for Separating Conjoined Twins, which has recorded 66 profitable separations worldwide.
Senator Johnson Smith thanked the Saudi authorities and His Majesty King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for protecting all medical, transport, and logistical bills associated to the twins’ remedy.
“This initiative, undertaken beneath the aegis of the royal household and the King Salman Humanitarian Assist and Aid Centre, is certainly one of most lovely methods to strengthen the connection between international locations, as a result of it exhibits that those that are rich will help those that don’t have,” she stated.
She additionally praised the initiative as deserving of worldwide recognition and prolonged prayers for the success of the process. “We ship our prayers to the fingers and the hearts of the medical crew as they carry out this delicate and delicate operation that has the potential to alter the lives of two individuals and people round them. We ship each blessing and prayer for his or her steerage.”
Ambassador Alhamoudi assured Elson that the surgical procedure could be a hit, citing a latest achievement by Saudi surgeons who on Sunday morning separated 17-month-old conjoined Syrian twins, Selin and Elin, throughout an eight-hour process carried out by a crew of 24 consultants and specialists.
Elson, visibly emotional, expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Saudi authorities and UHWI. He additionally praised the twins’ mom for her energy all through the journey. “I’m very pleased. I’m certain they are going to make it by. I’m simply hoping for a miracle,” he stated.
