Doctors team up to save twins

The twins at the Mara regional hospital. A team of pediatricians and surgeons at Bugando referral hospital have joined forces to save their lives. PHOTO|FILE

What you need to know:

  • The two were born by Elena Paul, 21, on January 3, this year, at Mara regional hospital and were later referred to Bugando referral hospital in Mwanza for specialist treatment.

Mwanza. A team of pediatricians and surgeons at Bugando referral hospital have joined forces to save the lives of conjoined twins.

The two were born by Elena Paul, 21, on January 3, this year, at Mara regional hospital and were later referred to Bugando referral hospital in Mwanza for specialist treatment. 

The two baby girls had a combined weight of 4.6 kilograms at birth and had conjoined chests and stomachs.

Dr Festo Manyama, a pediatrician at Bugando referral hospital told The Citizen that a team of surgeons and other specialists have been assembled to determine how best to deal with their condition.

“We are doing everything in our capacity to save the babies’ lives,” he said.

He said before surgery, the two conjoined twins were required to undergo a computed tomography (CT) scan and Ultra sound tests to determine if the babies shared some important parts.

“We have already conducted an Ultra Sound test and the results show there is no sharing of important parts; but we need to conduct another test using a CT scan machine, which will give us conclusive results,” said Dr Manyama.

He said doctors would be able to operate on the babies only if the two would not be sharing important body parts.

According to Dr Manyama, the two babies need close doctor monitoring so that they can free from diseases.

“We are giving them medicines to protect them from transmitted diseases, they are also using oxygen machines to breathe as well as feeding tubes,” said Dr Manyama.

He added that the hospital management was looking forward to referral the two babies to Muhimbili National Hospital.

“We will refer them to MNH because our hospital cannot manage to deal with this case, but for the time being we are doing everything we can to save their lives,” he said.

The baffled mother of the conjoined twins, Ms Paul asked the government to support her in making sure her children get required health services.

““I am afraid our hospitals may not be able to deal with this, I am told the surgery could only take place abroad and I am only a poor woman, thus I am requesting the government to help me,” she said.

Tanzania has witnessed several cases of conjoined twins in recent years.

Towards the end of last year Apollo Hospitals announced the successful separation of a pair of conjoined twins from Tanzania in a surgery that took a marathon 11 hours and required the expertise of around 50 professionals.

Twins Abriana and Adriana were joined at their lower chest and abdomen, a medical condition described as ‘Thoraco Omphalopagus.’

They were separated after meticulous planning and execution involving a paediartic urologist and a team leader who supervised the surgical procedure.

The siblings, who were conjoined at the chest and abdomen had a single heart cavity and a connected liver.

They are the only living pair of Thoraco-omphalopagus conjoined twins with a single heart cavity.