Photos: Team of 50 Kenyan doctors successfully separate conjoined twins

 Doctors at the Kenyatta Hospital on Wednesday morning November 3rd, successfully separated conjoined twins in the first ever surgery of its kind on the continent.

A team of 50 medical specialists separated the twin girls, Favour and Blessing, whose lower backs were fused, in an operation that took 23 hours and concluded at 5am on Wednesday morning after a two year hospital stay.

The twins are currently admitted in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital but KNH Acting Chief Executive Officer Thomas Mutie, told reporters that they are expected to make a full recovery.

“It is the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa, outside South Africa where this kind of operation has been done successfully. So this fete is a statement to the world ‘in KNH and in Kenya, we can do what other people can do."

The girls have been admitted to the hospital for the last two years since their birth in late 2014. The doctors however opted to given the children time to grow before putting them under the knife to allow them time for preparation and to allow the girls to grow in strength as explained by doctor Mutie.

"These particular ones were joined in the sacro area, in the bottom area, and they had to be given food to grow, to have enough muscles for that separation to occur. So this day marks the culmination of those two years of preparation and I’m humbled by the importance and enormity of this event."

Below is a report posted by the Hospital on its official Facebook page: 

"On 1st November 2016, the Kenyatta National Hospital and School of Health Sciences - University of Nairobi medical team successfully separated the conjoined twins Blessing and Favour. The separation surgery of the Sacrophagus twins who were joined at the lower back took 23 hours. The twins have been in KNH since 5th September 2014 following their referral from St. Theresa Hospital, Kiirua in Meru County.

The multidisciplinary team of over fifty (50) medical specialists including paediatric surgeons, neurosurgeons, plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anesthetists and nursing teams performed the 23 hour long highly delicate surgery on 1st November 2016 at the KNH Main Theatres leading to the successful separation of the twins. The surgery ended 2nd November, 2016 at 5:00am.

The children have been admitted in the Specialized Surgical Paediatric Ward for over two years to allow development of key organs and also enable them gain appropriate muscles to withstand the surgery. The conjoined twin girls who were born on 4th September 2014 were joined at the sacral region of the lower spinal cord. 

Surgery of this nature usually required planning and regular consultation by a multi-disciplinary team of KNH and School of Health Sciences, UON specialists to exchange ideas on how best to perform the procedure while minimizing risk of either paralysis or neural damage. 

Having been convinced that time was appropriate, the team set on the surgery on 1st November 2016, at 6.00am and after 23 long hours in theatre, they emerged with the two separate children who are currently admitted in the ICU. The children are stable, receiving specialized care and we are monitoring progress. We are confident that they will fully recovery and live normal independent lives to adulthood.

We thank God for this great milestone and celebrate the team for the job well done. It has taken not only skills but patience, commitment and self confidence to bring this joy to the mother, relatives, friends and honor to our country for the first ever sarcophagus surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Successful surgery is a testimony that the country is endowed with medical specialists who can handle complicated human health challenges"

 See photos of the twins at birth, in 2014 and also photos of the doctors after the surgery, below...