Pongola conjoined twins named
A set of Pongola-conjoined twins remain healthy at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban
THE Zululand Observer can announce that the set of conjoined twins born in Pongola last week have been named Se and Shishi.
The twin girls who are conjoined at the chest and abdomen (omphalopagus), were born at their home in Pongola on Saturday, 8 October.
They were airlifted to Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) shortly after birth for further analysis.
According to chief pediatrician Dr Harshavadan Ratilal Mackanjee, the twins are healthy, not requiring any life support and are tolerating small feeds.
He said although there are certain vital organs that the babies share, such as the liver, there are other critical organs such as the heart and lungs that they do not share, which makes their case a little less complicated.
‘They will need to grow in weight and become more mature (before surgery).
‘In the meantime further investigations are being done to determine the extent of their sharing of vital organs,’ he said.
KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo visited the twins on Friday and expressed his full confidence that the twins will receive the highest level of healthcare possible at IALCH’s neonatal intensive care unit.
‘They will be treated by a multi-disciplinary team of highly trained specialists,’ said Dhlomo.
Dr Mackanjee further said the extent and risk of surgery will be directly proportional to the degree of organ sharing.
‘The surgery will be definitely very high risk with extensive and prolonged ICU care.’
Meanwhile MEC Dhlomo said that if the hospital care was to be done privately, it would cost millions.
This, he said, is why National Health Insurance is so crucial.
‘The costs that would be involved in the hospital care and other future plans would have amounted to what we call catastrophic health expenditure, which is exactly what NHI will address, as health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has been emphasising.
‘But these babies are going to have an outcome that is not dependent on how much money their parents have in the pocket.’
Their mother (31) has since conceded that she only attended ante-natal classes once during the early stages of her pregnancy.
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