15-month co-joined twins separated after nine-hour surgery
The twins and their parents before and after the operation
Another co-joined twins, Hassana and Husseina Ukpo, who were successfully separated at the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State, have been discharged 15 months after delivery.
Born in a private clinic on April 4, 2019, to a 75-year-old farmer, Okaa Ukpoo and 25-year-old mother, Tesella Okaa, the twins were separated after a nine-hour surgery on July 10, 2020, by a 65-man medical team at the cost of N35 million. The man lost his first wife before he remarried. He had five kids with his first wife.
Speaking during their discharge yesterday in Abuja, Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, said the medical team had put the country on the world map, adding that soon, with the right encouragement, the country would be a destination for medical tourism.
Mamora disclosed that the twins were conjoined in the abdomen and rib cage and the extensive preparation for the separation involved a multidisciplinary team of over 50 medical experts, cutting across various specialities.
“Separation of conjoined twins was a phenomenon that we were used to hearing take place in the medical practice of the first world, but here we are today announcing an operation carried out by a 100 per cent indigenous medical team leading to the separation of Omphalopagus conjoined twins.”
He noted that the Federal Medical Centre Keffi is one of the centres the government would focus on for specialised surgeries, and commended the governor of Nasarawa State, Mr. A. A. Sule, for his support to the centre to make the surgery a success.
Also speaking, the Medical Director of the cenre, Dr Yahaha Baba Adamu, observed that this wasn’t the first time the centre was presented with conjoined twins. He recalled that the hospital had to refer the first one to the National Hospital, Abuja for separation. He noted that the team learnt a lot of lesson from the National Hospital incident and braced up to the challenge of separating the twins successfully.
He put the cost of the separation at about N35 million, adding that the governor gave N10 million while the remaining cost was borne by the hospital.
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