Posted on 09/23/2002 1:52:48 AM PDT by HAL9000
BAGHDAD, Sept 22 (AFP) - Siamese twins were recently born in Iraq, the first such case in the country which has been suffering from a lack of proper medical care due to the 12-year-old international embargo, hospital sources said Sunday.The twin brothers were born August 8 in a Baghdad hospital, joined by the stomach and the pelvis, they said.
Their father, taxi driver Ahmad Ghazi Rashud, told AFP that he wanted to have a son before he was told his wife had given birth to siamese twin brothers.
"I consulted five big hospitals in Baghdad, but the doctors told me that their separation needed advanced medical equipment which does not exist in Iraq" due to the embargo imposed on the country since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, he said.
"They explained to me that surgery for such cases needed a team of about 15 specialized surgeons, which is very difficult to find here due to the embargo," he said.
"The doctors advised me to appeal to hospitals abroad, but my financial condition is very modest," said Rashud, who has already started selling personal belongings to raise money for any future separation surgery.
Saddam is exploiting this family for his P.R. campaign to get the sanctions lifted. I doubt that qualified surgeons for such cases would be found in Iraq even without an embargo.
Thank God there is a french paper with the courage to print this story. Somehow that's fitting.
Oh yeah, like Saddam was getting proper medical supplies before the embargo. Now I believe the stories about his soldiers stealing incubators out of Kuwaiti hospitals.
Saddam has been able to provide himself with every imaginable luxery, including personal physicians and a fully equipped operating room at every one of his many presidential palaces. And he's been able to send many thousands of dollars to families in the PLO to pay for suicide bombers. But he never bothered to spend any of his money on improving health care for the women of Iraq. The sanctions have nothing to do with it. Even after prolonged bombardment, the people of Iraq will be living better after Saddam is replaced.
BETTER KEEP 'em COVERED!!!
How many times must it be repeated? Food and medicine are not embargoed. Saddam just believes that spending money on his palaces and weapons of mass destruction are more important than the welfare of the Iraqi people.
The crown prince to Dubaï wants to deal with two Siamese Iraqi
Wednesday September 25, 2002 - 16h40 GMT
DUBAI, 25 seven (AFP) - the Minister for the Defense of the linked Arab Emirates and crown prince to Dubaï, Mohammad Ben Rached Al-Maktoum, declared himself ready to deal with the separation of two Iraqi Siamese twins, indicated to Wednesday to the AFP a person in charge émirati.
"Sheik Mohammed Ben Rached Al-Maktoum is been willing to deal with (separation) of the two Iraqi Siamese twins", declared this person in charge, who required anonymity.
"Sheik Mohammed intends to dispatch a special plane in Baghdad to bring back the two Siamese twins, in company of their father, to make them look after in a European country or elsewhere", it added.
"the initiative of sheik Mohamed translates the noble attitude of the Arabs", declared with the AFP in Baghdad their father, Ahmed Ghazi Rachoud, taxi driver.
"the family was delighted by learning the news (..) and the embassy émiratie in Baghdad contacted us to do what is necessary", has it says, while wishing to see his/her children "having normal activities like the other children of the world" after the operation.
A hospital source in Baghdad had revealed Sunday the first case of Siamese twins, bound by the belly and the basin, in this country struck by the embargo of the United Nations for more than twelve years and suffering of a lack of hospital equipment.
They were born on August 8 in Baghdad, according to their father who had launched a call to generosity so that it can make separate his children.
"I consulted five large hospitals in Baghdad, but the doctors taught me that their separation requires medical equipment of point non-existent in Iraq", it had says.
"They advised me to call upon international hospitals but my material conditions are very modest", it had added.
Too bad we are such evil people. Otherwise, we might actually be able to help, but I certainly wouldn't want one of these America-hating Muslims to have to compromise themselves by accepting help from the great Satan. Anybody else see some irony here?
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