Egyptian twins celebrate 2^nd birthday today in hospital-room party

Conjoined identical twins Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim celebrated their 2^nd birthday June 2 at a small party in their hospital room at North Texas Hospital for Children at Medical City with their father, their caregivers and close friends from the community in attendance. Toys, children’s songs in their native language of Arabic, their favorite cookies and a birthday cake were all part of the festivities.

The twins are patients at North Texas Hospital for Children at Medical City while they are undergoing a tissue expansion procedure to prepare them for eventual separation surgery this summer.

The boys arrived in Dallas from Cairo, Egypt on June 22, 2002. They are craniopagus twins—joined at the crown of the head—an extremely rare condition that happens in only one out of 2.5 million live births. They were born on June 2, 2001, to Sabah and Ibrahim Ibrahim in a remote village in southern Egypt.

Shortly after their birth, they were placed in the care of Dr. Nasser Abdelal, head of neonatal surgery at the University of Cairo Hospital. Dr. Abdelal was granted legal guardianship to care for and make appropriate medical treatment decisions for the boys.

Dr. Salyer, a craniofacial surgeon and one of the team of specialists in the Dallas Craniofacial Center at Medical City, was asked to evaluate the boys for possible separation surgery. Under the auspices of his foundation, the World Craniofacial Foundation, and with the full support of Medical City, the boys were brought to North Texas Hospital for Children at Medical City for tests and evaluation.

Since coming to Dallas, they have undergone numerous medical tests including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging studies (MRI) to help surgeons evaluate the possibility of their surgical separation.

One obstacle to the surgeries is the need for sufficient skin to cover the large wound areas that will be created at the time of separation. Because of the boys’ small size, their existing skin had to be expanded. That surgery was performed April 28, 2003.

The surgery involved inserting tissue expanders under the skin at sites on the boys’ heads and on their legs. These expanders are essentially balloons that are being filled with saline on a weekly basis, causing the skin to stretch to provide more skin for wound coverage.

The boys wear specially designed headgear and vests to help protect the sites where the expanders have been placed and ensure that the tissue expansion process has the greatest potential for success. They lie on an airbed that also has been modified to meet their unique needs. The airbed keeps minimum pressure on their bodies during the long tissue expansion period. The boys will be patients in the hospital throughout this period leading up to the separation surgery, which will be performed at Children’s Medical Center.

Medical City Dallas Hospital is donating all hospital-related costs involved in the twins’ care while they are at this hospital. All of the doctors are donating their medical expertise. The World Craniofacial Foundation, which is dedicated to helping families and children with craniofacial and cleft deformities, is underwriting all costs related to travel, lodging and ancillary expenses. The Foundation was founded by Dr. Salyer and provides financial and emotional support, as well as access to life-changing procedures.