Bound by Boston

Formerly conjoined twins celebrate five years apart

The Mohamed twins first came to Children's in 1999.

Formerly conjoined twins Hussein and Hassan Mohamed from the United Arab Emirates were at Children's Hospital Boston in May for follow-up care with surgeon Hardy Hendren, MD, chief emeritus of Surgery. Hendren performed their 25-hour-long separation surgery at Children's when the twins were 4 months old.

The Mohamed boys, now 5 years old, were thoraco-omphalo-ischiopagus twins—attached to each other extensively by the chest, abdomen and pelvis. Their surgery required separating two livers, sorting out the anatomy of the intestines, partitioning the bladder and dividing their single shared colon.

Hendren performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Boston in 1969, and has seen 14 other sets since, including the Mohamed boys. "All of these complicated cases of conjoined twins require long-term follow-up and some require additional surgery," says Hendren. "Thus they returned recently to be re-evaluated and for some slight revisions."

Children's surgeon Hardy Hendren separated Hussein and Hassan Mohamed when they were only 4 months old.

The main issues the Mohameds are dealing with now are incontinence complications, but Hussein and Hassan don't let that keep them from playing and roughhousing energetically like any other boys their age.

"They want to be big and strong like their brother Mohammad," says their mother Fatma. "They're up at 6 a.m. playing and fighting. I'm very happy and thankful because prior to the separation I didn't know if they would survive. Now they are young men."