Kampala, Uganda | URN | According to Mulago Women and Neonatal Hospital, the pair of twins that was referred from Arua Regional Referral Hospital cannot be separated
Doctors at the Mulago Women and Neonatal Hospital have refuted claims that they sent away a pair of conjoined twins due to failure by the parents to pay money for surgery.
On Friday, reports circulated on social media that the twins were sent away from Mulago hospital because the parents could not afford to pay 5 million shillings to separate them and that they were sent back to Arua.
Dr Evelyn Nabunya, the Executive Director of the Mulago Women and Neonatal Hospital says that the twins cannot be separated.
“The twins came to the unit. They have gone through a lot of assessment at no cost but unfortunately, they are not separable. At the moment they cannot be separated because of the way that they are joined. All the claims that the parents were asked to pay money are false. Some people obviously enjoy taking advantage of situations,” Dr Nabunya said.
According to documents, the twins were born on September 20, 2019, by a C-section at Arua Regional Referral Hospital. Four days later, they were referred to Mulago National Hospital.
Dr Nabunya explains that the children could not be separated because their internal organs were not clearly defined.
“The twins were assessed by Neonatologists, paediatric surgeons and even underwent some radiological examinations to see what is happening. We discovered that nothing can be done for them because some of their internal body organs are not clearly defined. For instance, one of them has a stomach that ends blindly,” Dr Nabunya explained.
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According to Dr Nabunya, the parents were informed about the situation of the children and they decided they wanted to go back to Arua.
“We are about to discharge the twins and their family members on request of the parents who want to go back home and manage the situation from familiar environment,” Dr Nabunya explained.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that incidence of conjoined twins is high in Southwest Asia and Africa.
It is estimated that they occur in 1 in 49,000 births and 1 in 189,000 births respectively. Approximately half are stillborn, and an additional one-third die within 24 hours.
