Four-month-old conjoined twins separated in 15-hour surgery at KNH

The Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) announced that it carried out a successful procedure to separate a set of four-month-old conjoined twin brothers on Sunday.

Through a statement sent to newsrooms on Monday, the country’s largest referral hospital said the 15-hour procedure was carried out without any major complications.

In a subsequent press briefing in the evening to give more details on the procedure, surgeons who performed the operation said the twins were conjoined in the chest and abdomen.

“We’ve been dealing with two kids who had abnormalities on the heart independently. They were joined in the abdomen, which means that apart from the liver joining the two, the muscles and the skin were being shared,” one of the doctors said.

Medics said a further analysis by the cardiology team showed that one of the babies had pulmonary hypertension whereby blood was flowing through their lungs.

The baby’s blood pressure was later contained, the doctor added.

KNH CEO Evans Kamuri said the twins were in stable condition within the hospital’s intensive care unit, but did not give a projection of when they hoped to discharge them.

“We hope that they continue improving. We cannot tell when they will be out of the ICU because these were like ten operations in one. There was operation of the skin, bone, heart and the liver. We are proud that this is the first time we are doing it,” he said.