Twins in a poor way

THE conjoined twins who were born at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha this week will not be separated as they share several organs.

Initially it had been planned to airlift the babies to the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town for an operation to separate them.

Port Elizabeth-based paediatric cardiologist Dr Lungile Pepeta, who examined the twins, said the children would be kept on a life-support system .

He was not sure how long they would survive.

Bongiswani Tumela, 25, from Libode, gave birth to the twins, who are joined from the stomach to the chest, on Wednesday evening.

Pepeta said yesterday that the babies shared an under-developed heart, liver and intestines.

They also have kidney problems.

Pepeta arrived at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital at about 8am yesterday, and after performing an hour-long examination flew back to continue his duties at the Port Elizabeth Complex Hospital

"It would be impossible to divide them without causing massive bleeding and death for both of them," said Pepeta.

Their shared heart is "abnormal" as it has only two chambers, instead of the four each that two normal hearts would have.

He said the twins also had very small blood vessels, which made it difficult for their lungs to get an adequate air supply.

They are currently dependent on a life-support machine for oxygen.

"One of them only has one kidney instead of two, while the other has two kidneys but one of them is full of water. This is a very abnormal situation because even the chest cavity is not well formed as it is short of ribs."

"The mother should not blame herself," he added.

Pepeta said he took the decision against separating them together with Red Cross Children's Hospital senior paediatric cardiologist Dr John Lawrenson.

Department of Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said after hearing about the complications the hospital had organised a psychologist to provide counselling for the twins' distressed mother.

"It is very unfortunate that the operation could not be provided," said Kupelo.
Tumela was still traumatised by yesterday afternoon.

"We had to prescribe medication for the trauma," he said.

Mthatha General acting head Dr Pila Hlatika, who has been monitoring the situation, said nurses were making their best efforts to keep the babies comfortable. - By BONGANI HANS

(Edit:Ruby)