The separation of one-year-old conjoined Nigerian twins has been described as the fourth of such operation to be carried out in the world.
The twins, Hussaina and Hassana Badru, were separated surgically in India; by 40 doctors in an 18 hour operation.
The pair, who were born with a condition called pygopagus in Kano, Nigeria, were joined at the hip and had spinal cord fusion, while also sharing a lower gastrointestinal passage and genitalia.
Specialist surgeons at BLK Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, India, conducted the separation on August 12.
They carried out two procedures – one to divide the twins, and one reconstructive operation.
The procedures – which cost an estimated £64,000 and were paid for by a Nigerian philanthropist – were so risky that doctors were forced to conduct practice runs on dummies before attempting it for real.
Dr. Prashant Jain, the paediatric surgeon who led the team, said: ‘The separation of the Badaru twins was a big challenge as they had unusual sharing of alimentary canal, genitourinary system and nervous system.
‘We overcame this with meticulous planning and team work. Rehearsals were carried out using dummies.
‘Every surgical step was defined and rehearsed over and over again till it reached precision.
The girls were colour coded, one pink and the other blue, for eight days before the surgery so that there would be no error at all.
‘All tubes, wires, catheters, leads, syringes, injections and drugs were also colour coded in accordance with the pink or blue code to avoid any error or miscalculation.’
Head of anaesthesiology, Dr. Valecha, added: ‘The most difficult task in this surgery was the anaesthetist’s job which was challenging by the fact that whatever drug was given to one twin, the other would receive it inadvertently through a large sharing vein therefore it needed to be calculated and monitored carefully.’
For the girls’ parents, father Badaru, and mother Malama Badariyya Badaru, it was the culmination of a long process to save their daughters.
After the babies were born in Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano, last year, they sought the help of local doctors to separate their twins.
But the diagnosis was simple – one of the girls would have to be sacrificed to save the other in order to carry out the separation surgery.
Desperate to save both their girls, they sought one last opinion, and were referred to New Delhi, where the chance of both surviving was deemed far greater.
The twins were taken to BLK Super Speciality Hospital, and after multiple evaluations their extreme case was identified as them sharing spinal cords, a lower intestinal tract and a urinary tract.
-Culled from Dailymail UK.
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