Miss Antonette Moyo gave birth to the girls at Mpilo
Central Hospital in Bulawayo on December 1 after she was referred from
Beitbridge District Hospital.
Miss Moyo is yet to name the twins who share a chest and a
liver but preliminary observations show they have individual hearts and pairs
of lungs as well as kidneys.
Of the documented cases of conjoined twins since
independence, only one was referred outside the country while in two instances
the babies died before surgery and the other two pairs were separated.
Siamese twins result from either fission, in which the
fertilised egg splits partially or fusion in which a fertilised egg completely
separates but stem cells search for similar cells on the other embryo and fuse
the twins.
Medical experts say this happens because identical twins
are a result of one fertilized egg and it is effectively one person divided
into two but when there are delays in the separation of the embryo, the babies
become conjoined.
If conjoined twins undergo certain treatments early, they
can be separated easily if there are no shared major organs.
The overall survival rate of conjoined twins is somewhere
between five percent and 25 percent and for some reason, experts say female
siblings seem to have a better shot at survival than their male counterparts.
Although more male twins conjoin in the womb than female twins, females are
three times as likely as males to be born alive.
Zimbabwe last conducted a successful separation of
two-month-old Murewa twin boys who shared a liver in 2014.
The historic medical breakthrough was recorded after an
eight-hour procedure at Harare Children’s Hospital by a team of 50 medical
personnel.
Chronicle caught up with Miss Moyo at Mpilo Central
Hospital yesterday where her twin girls are being monitored in the Intensive
Care Unit (ICU).
She said although she was free to share her story, she did
not want the pictures of her babies to be shared before they are separated.
The hopeful mother who has an older child aged three, said
she only got to know about the conjoined twin possibility at seven months when
she travelled back from South Africa.
She said she had done a couple of antenatal care visits to
the clinic while she was in Johannesburg with her husband although she never
went for a scan.
“I come from a village called Masungane in Beitbridge and
when South Africa relaxed some of the lockdown conditions, I decided to come
home and register the pregnancy locally. I travelled in October and was already
seven months pregnant and when I went for the first scan, I was told that my
babies were conjoined,” said Ms Moyo.
“I therefore could not deliver at Beitbridge and was
referred to Mpilo where I delivered via a Caesarean section on December 1,” she
said.
Miss Moyo said the twins were born healthy and they are
feeding well. She said her family has been supportive and she wishes to see the
day her babies will become normal as she trusts the doctors will be able to
separate the girls soon.
“I do have some challenges here and there and would do with
some form of help in terms of baby clothes and money.
That’s the least of my worries though, as I just want to
see them separated and living normally,” said Ms Moyo.
Mpilo acting chief executive officer Professor Solwayo
Ngwenya said the babies were undergoing assessment to ascertain whether they
are sharing a major organ and they will be referred to Harare for further
treatment.
He said the success of the operation would be based on the
outcome of the tests. “We are doing tests to determine which organs they are
sharing which will guide us on the way forward.
“They will be referred to Harare for treatment where there
are paediatric surgeons and specialists and we continue to hope for the best,”
said Prof Ngwenya.
He said if results show that the twins share many major
organs, they will be left to grow like that as trying to separate them may lead
to loss of life. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment