SUCCESSFUL! Ugandan Doctors separate Siamese Twins

Mbarara – Doctors at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital last Friday were all rejoicing after successfully separating conjoined twins, who were born at 33 weeks.

Ms Rabbecca Nkunda, 20, a resident of Kakooba, Mbarara City South Division, Mbarara City, said she went to the hospital after feeling contractions before rushing to Ruharo Mission Hospital for delivery.

“It all started as a normal contraction but they told me they were false. I went to Ruharo for a checkup and I was found to be fine but later, the contractions increased.

Ms Nkunda said after her condition worsened, the health worker stopped giving her medication and she was able to deliver her babies normally, before referring her to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.

“After they [health workers at Ruharo Mission Hospital] had identified this abnormality, they advised the parents to come here and straight away we admitted them in the ward for prematures,” Dr Deus Twesigye, a senior consultant at Mbarara hospital, said.

Dr Felix Oyania, a paediatric surgeon at the hospital, said the twins weighed 3.5kgs each.

“When we received the children, we found out that their intestines were exposed,” Dr Oyania said.
Dr Oyania said this was his first operation of such a kind.

“We involved our colleagues from the neonatal unit, radiologists, who checked the internal organs and senior consultants, who mobilised teams. It took us some time,” he said.

The Mbarara hospital director, Dr Celestine Barigye, said the experts they have at the facility helped them carry out the operation despite the fact that it was complex.

“They were alive and we were able to receive them and do necessary investigations, including scans to see whether the organs were good enough to survive,” he said.

He added: “Their urinary bladders were joined and also they did not have an outlet. So we put together a team of 10 specialists, two paediatric surgeons, a general surgeon, a specialist in anaesthesia, a specialist in urology and another in gastro-enterology. We also had a team of three paediatric surgeons, radiologists and of course the nurses and midwives,” he said.