Woman delivers siamese twins

May 25, 2006

A 27-year-old woman on Tuesday gave birth to siamese twins at home in Arua district helped by her aunt.

By Frank Mugabi

A 27-year-old woman on Tuesday gave birth to siamese twins at home in Arua district helped by her aunt.

Veronica Driciru of Azapi village in Omugo sub-county, was later taken to Arua Hospital labour ward. She said she did not feel labour pains. Doctors said she had no health complications but one of the twins is deformed.

The acting medical superintendent, Dr. Emmanuel Opar, said the twins, both female, needed immediate surgical separation. The head of one of them is fused at the other’s buttocks.

“One of the twins is well developed and seems to be okay but the second one is grossly abnormal with undeveloped organs,” Opar said.

Driciru, married to a peasant farmer, Joseph Adaku, said it was her fourth birth.

Their other three children, aged two, five and seven years, are normal.

Opar said one of the twins was breast feeding and passing urine normally and had high chances of surviving, adding that the major concern was on the other child with undeveloped limbs and head attached to the other child’s buttocks.
“One is likely to survive but the other can’t because its too abnormal,” Opar said.

Opar said Arua hospital lacked the facilities necessary for the separation.
Only the normal one cried at birth.
The doctors said there was a “great possibility” of the kids being successfully separated without necessarily being flown abroad.

“We haven’t seen any intersection of the major vessels, so we think the detachment can be done at Mulago hospital,” Opar said.

This was the second set of siamese twins received at Arua hospital since 1999. The previous set was flown to the US and separated successfully.

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