A set of conjoined twins, Testimony and Miracle, both females were born on Monday, November 16, last year at St. Patrick’s Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State but were immediately referred to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) in the same city for better medical attention.
This reporter visited them at UNTH where they are presently on admission and met the parents of the twins, Mr. Samuel Olusegun Ayeni and his wife, Mary.
Ayeni recalled that doctors told him when his wife was seven months pregnant that the babies were joined somewhere which ultra-sound tests did not specify.
To confirm what they were told, Ayeni said they conducted five more ultra-sound checks and the results were all the same. While they couldn’t figure out what led to the twins being conjoined, the couple resigned to fate. Their first child is two years old and the twins were their second birth.
Mother of the babies, Mrs. Mary Ayeni said if she was given the option of choosing children before delivery, she would not like to choose conjoined twins but quickly added “God has a reason for giving me these wonderful children.”
The major concern of the parents now is the separation of the babies. They said they do not have the money to pay for their separation.
“I have seen a lot of twins joined at different positions. I said God, since you have a reason for this, all I want now is a successful surgery for my children because I’m not ready to lose any one of them, they are dear to me,” Samuel Ayeni said.
He said he could go to any length to beg Nigerians for financial assistance so long as he will have his babies separated successfully, healthy and alive at the end of the day. The couple who hail from Yagba West Local Government of Kogi State have appealed to Nigerians, particularly the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello and the senator representing Kogi West Senatorial Zone, Dino Malaye to quickly come to their aid and save the lives of their babies.
Their passionate appeal came up as UNTH set up a sub-committee for fundraising to enable the babies undergo the surgery at the hospital,UNTH Chief Medical Director, Dr. Chris Amah told Daily Trust during an interview at the hospital.
Dr. Amah said the moment the hospital management got the information that the conjoined twins were admitted in the hospital, they called a meeting of the managing team and other special teams that will be involved in the management of the babies.
He said the hospital has handled about eight similar cases in the past, and is well-equipped to still handle the present case which will cost not less than N5million, adding that the hospital has a bank account known as UNTH New Born Incubation Services Recovery Account – 2744848671 at First City Monument Bank for public spirited individuals to pay in willful donations to enable the babies undergo surgery for their separation at the hospital.
He added that after they were briefed on the situation, the management established a committee chaired by Prof. Nene Obianyo, a clinical surgeon who is heading the clinical management of the patients.
He added that other members of the committee include specialists from different areas – plastic surgery, radiation medicine and other relevant units, saying the main goal for assembling them was to get the best result which is to have two healthy babies separated and having independent existence different from how they have been born together.
He described the process as “a very long journey that will take place in stages,” and emphasized that the major concern of UNTH now is to make sure that they are kept alive and healthy, properly fed, get the parents counseled, and then begin to apply the steps in management.
“First of all, the investigation, that is trying to establish the details of this natural union: What organs, structures are they sharing; we have to establish the anatomy, the structure. We have to establish some other things; what can you separate and what can’t be separated. So these details will be established through comprehensive investigation,” he explained.
However, the parents of the babies while expressing their deep appreciation to the management of the hospital for all their care and efforts said they preferred the babies’ surgery to be done in a hospital abroad, since the children are very dear to them, and they would not like to lose any of them in the process of separation.
