Saudi Arabia begins separating conjoined Fiji twins in a 15-hour operation

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A Saudi medical and surgical team began a complex operation to separate the 13-month-old Siamese and Fijian twins, Jesbeli and Desia, at King Abdullah Specialist Hospital for Children in King Abdulaziz Medical City, affiliated with the Ministry of National Guard in Riyadh, amid expectations that the surgery will take about 15 hours, with the participation of 34 specialists from various medical specialties.

The operation is being carried out in implementation of the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, within the Saudi Program for Conjoined Twins, which continues to conduct separation operations for cases referred to it from various countries of the world.

The General Supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, head of the medical and surgical team, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabiah, explained that the twins arrived in Saudi Arabia on July 21, 2026, and have since undergone a series of careful medical examinations and multidisciplinary evaluations.

Examinations revealed that the two girls were joined in the abdomen and pelvis, and shared the liver, intestines, colon, anus, urinary system, and reproductive system, in addition to the pelvic bone.

The nature of this adhesion makes surgery a very complex operation, given the multiple organs involved and the need to deal with each of them during the separation stages.

According to Al-Rabiah, the medical team developed a plan to conduct the operation in nine stages, taking about 15 hours, with the participation of 34 consultants, specialists, and technical and nursing staff.

The participating teams include the specialties of anesthesia, pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, orthopedics, and urology, in addition to allied medical specialties.

Al-Rabiah pointed out that medical evaluations and diagnostic studies estimated the success rate of the operation at about 70%, in light of the complexity of the twins’ condition and the nature of the shared organs between them.

The operation carries special importance as it is the first separation of conjoined twins from the Republic of Fiji within the Saudi program, and it also bears the number 74 in the record of separation operations conducted by the program.

Since its launch in 1990, the Saudi Conjoined Twins Program has provided care and medical evaluation to 159 conjoined twins from 28 countries distributed on five continents, according to the numbers announced by Al-Rabiah.

These numbers reflect the program’s work spanning more than three decades, dealing with complex medical cases that require multidisciplinary teams and advanced surgical and therapeutic capabilities.

Al-Rabiah stressed that the support received by the program contributed to the development of its medical and surgical capabilities, expressing his hope for the success of the operation, the recovery of the two girls, and their return to their country in health and safety.