Arua siamese return safe after US surgery

Nov 07, 2002

Christine and Louise Onziga flew out of Uganda as one body in February and returned this week as separate individuals

Christine and Louise Onziga flew out of Uganda as one body in February and returned this week as separate individuals. They have not only got a new lease of life, but also gained celebrity status.

Charles Wendo writes that on Wednesday, their parents, Gordon Onzima and Margaret Athai, could not hide their joy as they took the freed twin girls to meet health ministry officials. “It is really unbelievable,” said Onzima.

He added, “Doctors had told us that the children could be separated but we might lose one in the process. We felt so sad because God gave us two and we wanted to take care of them.”

At birth Louise and Christine could not be separated. For the first six months they lived facing each other, their bodies fused from chest to navel. Their livers and hearts were joined together.

This was the third set of siamese twins in Uganda in 20 years. The first time both babies came out alive, said Dr. Edson Mworozi, head of the paediatrics department in Makerere University Faculty of Medicine.

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