How Nigerian Doctors Successfully Separated Conjoined Twins in Abuja

A team of 78 medical officers had successfully separated conjoined twins – Goodness and Mercy Martins at the National Hospital in Abuja.

The two sisters were joined in the chest and abdomen and the surgery lasted for 12 hours.

Both are now certified okay to go home six weeks after surgery to separate the twins had happened in November last year but details have only just been released by the hospital, because they wanted to ensure there were no post surgery complications.

The surgery was delayed till November 2019 despite that the twins were born on August 13th due to some complications revealed the pediatric surgeon Emmanuel Ameh.

Ameh said the girls underwent surgery to repair the area that had been torn open at the navel and doctors had to wait for many weeks for them to recover from the procedure because the twins were born with a condition known as omphalocele – a birth defect that left a section of their intestine sticking outside their navel.

Plastic surgeons on the team were said to be worried that a large section of the girls’ chest would be open and at risk of being infected once they were separated and they had to create artificial skin large enough to cover the area, which took several weeks.

While talking to CNN, Ameh said “we needed to determine if they could live independently when they are separated. We found out that they were sharing a diaphragm and one liver was serving both of them, but all other organs were separate.”