Complex road ahead for conjoined babies
DELICATE: Dr Harshavadan Ratilal Mackanjee, left, and health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo A SET of conjoined twin girls is doing well in hospital.
The babies, born last Saturday in Pongola, KwaZulu-Natal, and who have a combined weight of 3.37kg, are joined at the chest and abdomen, and share some vital organs including their liver.
Dr Harshavadan Ratilal Mackanjee, chief specialist in neonatal medicine at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban, to which the girls were flown last week, said such babies were an uncommon occurrence, happening in only one in half-a-million births.
“It is a very complex and exceptionally rare case which requires a segmented approach,” Dr Mackanjee said. “It is a pricy situation, not in a monetary sense, but the emotional and life cost.
“The babies are doing well and do not require life support. They are breathing on their own and are being fed intravenously. They are behaving like normal babies with their own personalities. We will allow the babies to grow to over six months and work out the feasibility of a separation.”
Dr Mackanjee said that when the babies were born, it was a shock for their mother. The 31year-old mother has three other children, all of whom were born without incident.
He said the hospital would consult the parents and family to find out if they wanted to go ahead with a separation before any steps were taken.
“The feasibility would require a multidisciplinary team and critical-care staff,” he said.
KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo visited the twin girls in hospital this week.
Dhlomo said: “Whatever the outcome . . . these twins are going to be exposed to highly trained specialists.”