Source: Nairobi Star
Maureen Mudi
4 April 2011
There was shock in Mombasa after a 20-year-old mother of four, delivered triplets with two conjoined. Doctors at the Coast Provincial General Hospital were still puzzled at how the woman, who had been referred from a Kwale district hospital, managed to successfully go through normal delivery.
Yesterday, efforts were being made to ensure the conjoined twins, who are suspected to be sharing very vital organs, were airlifted to Nairobi for further treatment.
The third child, also a boy, was said to be in a stable condition, with his mother, Mwaka Chaka, a housewife, breastfeeding him. The boy, according to doctors, is weighing 2.7kgs, while the two conjoined twins weighed 2.2kgs. This is the second case of conjoined twins in less than a year in Kwale district in South Coast.
According to Chaka, who lives in Magodzoni area, she began going through labour pains at around 6pm on Friday and did not sleep the whole night until the next morning.
Her husband, Nyota Phunga Mrema, who is a gardener at a farm in South Coast, said he contacted his boss the next morning after realising his wife was in too much pain and “some liquid” was coming out of her. Apparently, the woman has been delivering her children, all girls, at home, and never underwent any complications.
Mrema’s boss provided the car in which his wife was rushed to Tiwi Hospital, where she delivered before being transferred to the Coast provincial General Hospital.”It is God who gives children. I never expected this but it has happened,” Chaka said in her hospital bed.
She lost plenty of blood during delivery and doctors put her under observation. “All we can say is that this is God’s doing. We are waiting for any decision from the hospital so that we know what to do next,” Mrema said.
A doctor at the hospital, Twahir Hemed, said the twins are conjoined from the chest downwards and have a shared perforated anus and one male organ. Another doctor, Samole Wangare , said they were yet to examine the extent of the shared organs.Dr Hemed, a paediatrician, said apparently the case looked quite complicated since the twins do not have an anal opening.”This case is quite urgent and we need to get them to Kenyatta National Hospital for specialised treatment and diagnosis,” Dr Hemed said. The hospital’s administrator was making attempts to secure services of Amref, in order to airlift the twins and their mother.
He noted that most cases of conjoined twins have been emanating from South Coast and attributed this to possibilities of poor nutrition and micro nutrients deficiency.
The doctor said there is a possibility that the eggs were not separated during fertilization, leading to the situation.”The twins, if all goes well, should be in Nairobi by today (yesterday) evening, we are making all efforts to ensure that happens,” he said.
