Jerusalem: A world-renowned Indian-origin pediatric neurosurgeon in the UK has helped a group of Israeli doctors to successfully operate on a pair of twins conjoined at the head, with the babies now likely to lead normal lives, a media report said.
This is for the first time that Dr. Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, who was born in Kashmir and works at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, agreed to carry out such a surgery outside the UK when contacted by doctors at Israel’s Soroka hospital, according to a report in The Times of Israel (TOI).
He and his colleague, Professor David Dunway, are globally seen as experts on such cases.
Dr Jeelani said, “from a doctor’s point of view, we’re all one” and that medicine transcends all divisions.
“He said that the fact that a Kashmir-born Muslim doctor scrubbed up alongside an Israeli team to help a Jewish family was a reminder of the universal nature of medicine,” the report quoted him as saying.
“It was a fantastic family that we helped,” Dr Jeelani said, adding, “as I’ve said all my life, all children are the same, whatever color or religion.”
“The distinctions are man-made. A child is a child. From a doctor’s point of view, we’re all one,” he emphasized.
The doctor found the family’s delight at the success of the operation “deeply moving.”
“There was this very special moment when the parents were just over the moon. I have never in my life seen a person smile, cry, be happy, and be relieved at the same time. The mother simply couldn’t believe it, we had to pull up a chair to help her to calm down,” Dr Jeelani told the news portal.
