Nigerian doctors successfully separate conjoined twins in 12 hours

The doctors operated on the twins few months after their 1st birthday

A set of conjoined twins, Goodness and Mercy Martins, have been successfully separated by a group of Nigerian doctors in a surgery that lasted for 12 hours.

According to the BBC, Emmanuel Ameh, lead surgeon, said that the separation of the 1-year-old set of twins was carried out around the chest and abdomen, in November and it involved 78 doctors working in two groups.

He revealed that the two sisters were now well enough to go home.

Ameh also said that the operation, which cost about N19m and surprisingly, the hospital didn't take any dime from the parents of the twins owing to the fact that they could not afford the bills.

The parents, Michael Edeh and Maria Onya Martins - could not afford the medical bills because the father was a painter who earns below N40, 000 monthly.

Since the birth of the twins in August 2018 through cesarean-section, they were at the hospital for about 15 months before the hospital gave the pass to carry-out the operation.

Jaf Momoh, Chief Medical Director (CMD) at the National Hospital in Abuja, said the hospital took particular interest in the twins upon discovering that their parents were poor and cannot bear the financial burden.

“My attention was drawn to their inability to pay for such expensive medical procedure so we accessed their status and classified them as indigent. We funded their care and major surgeries that separated them,” Mr. Momoh, a professor said on Tuesday at a press briefing.

“We ensured that the lack of funds did not stop the beautiful twins from enjoying their lives independently.”

BBC further revealed that the hospital has separated about 11 conjoined twins over the last 20 years, but in those cases, all the twins had been joined at the abdomen.

The twins' parents were very glad that their children made it through the operation alive and couldn't wait to get back home.

The minister of health has visited the hospital to praise the efforts of the medics and meet the family - and the women's affairs minister has promised to give Mrs. Martin a job to help the family.