Benhaffaf twins back on home soil
Separated twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf were waking up on home soil today after returning home to Ireland.
Dubbed the “Little Fighters”, the five-month-olds were brought back to Cork yesterday by the Air Corps after medics at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital gave the all-clear.
The boys are expected to remain at Cork University Hospital (CUH) for several days while their progress is monitored by an expert paediatric team.
Their parents Angie and Azzedine Benhaffaf appealed for privacy and vowed to arrange a proper homecoming at a later date.
Surgeons were taken aback by the speed of the boys’ recovery, just over six weeks since they endured a complex 14-hour operation.
They had been joined from the chest to the pelvis.
Deirdre Murray, consultant paediatrician at CUH, said: “We’re delighted to hear that they have done very well following their surgery and we are looking forward to getting to know them.
“We also know that their parents are looking forward to spending some quiet time with them as a family after a difficult few months.”
Dr Murray added: “We hope that they will only need to be with us for a couple of days, get back to being part of a normal family and just start treating them as separate little boys.”
The twins are being looked after by a CUH team headed by Professor Jonathan Hourihane before a decision is made on when they can be cared for at home in Carrigtwohill, east Cork.
The boys’ hearts were not joined, but all of their other major organs, including their liver, gut and bladder, were and had to be separated. They have one leg each.
The Benhaffafs relocated their entire family, including daughters Malika, four, and two-year-old Iman, to London for the operation and recovery period.
