nasser s colleague, pediatric surgeon dr. mamdouh aboulhassan contacts his friend, dr. kenneth salyer in texas. they had met when mamdouh attended a training session at the world craniofacial foundation, a nonprofifit organization in dallas hospital in texas. salyer heads up the foundation. and i sent him an e-mail with their photos. i just want to ask him, have you seen conjoined twins like that and how can we separate them? and from this started this long journey of hope. the foundation agreed to have them evaluated. but of course even if they could be separated, the boys family could never afford the price. this could cost $2 million, maybe more. in a good month ibrahim could count on perhaps $50. so it makes all the difference when the foundation decides the doctors will donate their services. and for sabah and ibrahim, that means there is hope for their little boys.
everybody cries. everyone. ibrahim has been nervously smoking a cigarette when he gets the news. all the months of worry, responsibility, lifted in an instant. he embraces nasser. and faints. translator: even if i had 100 years, i could never explain to you what i felt right then. he obviously was pretty wound up, and the release of that tension must have been amazing. for him, for everybody. he just dropped on the floor. and while he was on the floor, he was babbling with words, he says it s impossible. it s impossible. he said, i don t know how to thank you or what how to reward you for this. but there s still hours of work to be done. the expanders had come out, and you were left with tissue that was stretched out. membranes of tissue. so then we take those membranes
machines, and generous financing would all combine to make sense of the impossible choice. but time and tests revealed an outlook which was even more complicated than anybody had imagined. this is an orchestration of the most complex surgical procedure that occurs on this earth. there s no question about that in my mind. these are the images that confront dr. salyer. a tangled confusion of blood vessels he s never seen before. major veins that originate in one twin, snaking their way deep into the other twin s head. mohamed and ahmed are not only stuck firmly together, they depend on each other for their lives. mohamed, the smaller but more outgoing twin, has more delicate, narrower veins in his head than his brother, and salyer is forced to concede he is the more vulnerable in surgery. surgery they re not even sure is possible. as we ve moved through it,
life for the twins is a constant series of visits to the hospital for testing. they re now under the care of dr. mamdouh, who accompanied them to dallas and has been with them the entire time. i m worried a lot about their bone growth and bone healing because the cranium, the brain tissue is a very weak tissue and even the slightest murmur might cause an injury. in some ways the boys development is about two years behind children their own age, and the surgery did leave signs of disability. push. good. mohamed does not have full use of his right hand. ahmed is unable to walk on his own. good boy. three times a week dr. samy nasseh volunteers his services, gives the twins physical therapy. good boy, ahmed. he believes ahmed will walk on his own but it will take a long time. and stand up. he needs the assistance of two
after a hero s welcome home to egypt, ahmed, mohamed, and their entire family begin a new life for themselves. hey. how are you? how are you? good. in may 2006 the twins have a very special visit. how s your english? good. is your english good? yes. dr. salyer s visit to cairo is twofold. he ll tour the facility run by dr. nasser and, of course, check up on mohamed and ahmed. it s been a long time. okay. okay. you went over to egypt to see these boys. right. what was that like? it was a wonderful moment. we had an opportunity to see