Separated Siamese twins ‘doing great’
What you need to know:
The twins, who shared a liver and cartilage bones, were separated from an Egyptian hospital courtesy of Cairo government.
Stillbirth might be agonising but the nightmare of giving birth to conjoined twins, perhaps, is more traumatising to parents and their immediate relatives.
The agony usually gives way to an anxious wait for a costly and delicate operation to separate the twins. Such is what Rosette Tusiime and Denis Owomugisha of Kabale had been going through since June 10 when they begot conjoined Trevor Bainomugisha and Timothy Twinomugisha.
“I could not believe that my babies were two-in-one but someone told us to come to Mulago Hospital where we would get assistance but according to stories we had heard in the village, their chances of surviving were minimal,” Ms Tusiime said.
An expensive operation was needed, yet the parents could not meet the millions required for it. With prayers, they trudged to Mulago Hospital. The couple say they were given hope by Dr Doreen Male Birabwa, a surgeon, who told them that they would operate the twins at no cost when the babies make 10 kilogrammes.
A few weeks later, the hospital received a pledge from Egypt, whose government said it would meet the cost of separating the twins. Three weeks ago, the babies were flown to Wadi El Nil Hospital in Cairo accompanied by Dr John Ssekabira, a senior surgeon. The parents, who remained behind, lived in fear.
“We kept praying that they would come back as normal babies, you know we are parents. Which parent would like their child to die?” the parents said.
Intense operation
“The operation was intense and for six hours, at least 10 surgeons operated on the babies. The most difficult part was separating the liver, which was fused, the diaphragm, which was interfaced and the sternum (the flat breastbone that articulates with the clavicles and the first seven pairs of ribs),” Dr Ssekabira said. “The doctors opted to leave Timothy with the sternum while Trevor was given an implant.”
Initially, it was anticipated that the operation would take more than a month because it was to be done in series. However, doctors from the Pan-African Association of Pediatric Surgeons decided on a single operation, which lasted six hours.
The babies were discharged from Wadi El Nil Hospital last week and flown into the country on Sunday. They were hospitalised in Mulago to allow doctors continue monitoring their condition but discharged yesterday.
When this paper visited the two parents, they thanked the hospital management and the public for the assistance. Mulago Hospital spokesperson Dan Kimosho yesterday said they do not know the cost of the operation but that they contributed at least Shs25m, including air tickets, toward the Egypt mission.
