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Parents seek N8m to separate conjoined twin

By Eniola Daniel
10 October 2017   |   4:29 am
James and John Ugwoke, born in May this year, was abruptly short-lived like the speed of light immediately it dawned on the parents, Obinna and Amarachi Ugwoke, that the newborns were conjoin twin.

James and John Ugwoke, born in May this year, was abruptly short-lived like the speed of light immediately it dawned on the parents, Obinna and Amarachi Ugwoke, that the newborns were conjoin twin.

The joy trailing the arrival of the twin, James and John Ugwoke, born in May this year, was abruptly short-lived like the speed of light immediately it dawned on the parents, Obinna and Amarachi Ugwoke, that the newborns were conjoin twin.

Since then, the twin’ parents have dire straits in frantic search for financial support to separate them through surgery.

According to the father of the twins, Ugwoke, they were given birth to at the First Covenant Hospital, Satellite Town in Festac, Lagos State, before they were transferred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where the parents were promised that the babies would be separated when they are exactly a month old. The promise never came to be.

“I asked why the surgical operation could not be performed, I was told to wait for another three months for the babies to be big and strong enough for the surgery. It is now five months and nothing has been done. The doctors stopped attending to us for the past two months and they have stopped picking my calls.

“I met the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of LUTH, Dr. Christopher Bode, who asked me to exercise some patience that he just came back from a trip, which I did. However, on Tuesday, October 3, my wife called me that she was asked to leave the hospital, that it was the resolution of the LUTH team of doctors to send her home,” he said.

The outcome of a scan carried out shows that each twin has independent kidneys, spleen and pancreas. They also have an independent stomach, small bowel and colon, while the rest of the internal organs are conjoined.

The church where the couple worships, SS Michael, Raphael and Gabriel Catholic Church, Satellite Town, through the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Vincent Ezezue, is leading the campaign to raise N8 million needed for the surgery.

Account details: Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 0019008525, Access Bank. The parish priest can be reached on 08131070977 and the twin’ father contact is 08034486085.

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