MANILA: As they prepare to travel to Riyadh next week for separation surgery, the parents of Olivia and Gianna Manuel have renewed hopes that their children will grow up like others, as they have become the fourth pair of Filipino twins to be taken care of by the Saudi Conjoined Twins Program.
The girls from the town of Talavera in the central Philippine province of Nueva Ecija were born in April 2024.
They are joined from the chest to the abdomen, a condition known as omphalopagus.
“They can’t eat properly. It’s really difficult for them. When one is lying down, the other often gets pinned down because the bigger one is very hyper. The smaller one is usually underneath,” the children’s mother, Ginalyn Manuel, told Arab News.
“When they’re lying down or sleeping, even if one still wants to sleep, she’s forced to wake up because the other keeps moving.”
She first learned about the Saudi Conjoined Twins Program when she followed social media updates on Akhizah and Ayeesha Yusoph, the second pair of Filipino twins to undergo separation surgery in Saudi Arabia.
At that time, she was still in the hospital with the girls, closely monitored by doctors for three months after they were born. She then reached out to the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, which runs the conjoined twins program, and in July last year, a hospital in Riyadh got in touch with her.
After various steps of medical qualification, the Saudi Embassy in Manila announced the girls would soon travel to the Kingdom with their parents to undergo the separation procedure.
They are scheduled to fly to Riyadh on Jan. 26.
“Out of so many people, we were given the chance for our twins to be separated. If it were just us, we really couldn’t afford it. The help from the Saudi government is truly enormous,” Manuel said.
“I imagine them playing here, already apart, walking on their own. It feels so good just thinking about it. That’s what I always include in my prayers — that their separation surgery will be successful.”
Saudi Arabia is known as a pioneer in the field of separation surgery. KSrelief was established by King Salman in 2015 and is headed by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, one of the world’s most renowned pediatric surgeons.
Since 1990, he and his team have separated more than 140 children from 27 countries who were born sharing internal organs with their twins.
The first pair of Filipino conjoined twins, Ann and Mae Manzo, were separated under the program in March 2004. They were joined at the abdomen, pelvis and perineum.
They were followed by the Yusoph twins, who were joined at the lower chest and abdomen and shared one liver. Their successful separation procedure was in September 2024.
The third pair of Filipino conjoined twins, Maurice Ann and Klea Misa, who are joined at the head, flew to Riyadh in May and are currently being prepared for their surgery.
