The pair of formerly conjoined twins – Uwenzile and Uyihlelile Silongoyane – will this week make the trip back home to Swaziland after undergoing a successful, delicate separation procedure at the Netcare Unitas Hospital in Pretoria.
“The babies are currently discharged at the moment, and we will keep them here for another two days because of the logistics regarding the transport for them to go back to their home in Swaziland. By early Thursday morning they will leave this hospital so we are just keeping them to ensure everything is fine when they go home,” the hospital’s general manager, Robert Jordaan, told scores of journalists during a photo-opportunity inside the facility on Tuesday.
“We have an overnight facility where we have accommodated the parents in the hospital at no charge, as we felt that it was critical for them to be close to the babies whilst they are here. They [the parents] have stayed here for the entire period. It is fantastic to know that the babies are going to their home, and not into a primary care hospital.”
He said the “very special twin girls” had made significant progress and had been transferred from the paediatric intensive care unit into the paediatric ward over the weekend.
The infants were prematurely born on January 2 – at 36 weeks – as conjoined twins, via caesarean section at the Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki, Swaziland. At birth they had a combined weight of 4,21 kilogrammes.
The girls were joined at the lower abdomen but did not share any vital organs. This type of conjoined twins are known as omphalopagus twins. The pair was admitted to the Netcare Unitas Hospital through the Swazi government’s Phalala Fund on January 15 – a few days ahead of the procedure to separate them.
Jordaan said Uwenzile and Uyihlelile had earned a special place in the hearts of the hospital staff, particularly the doctors involved in the twins’ care.
“Netcare Unitas Hospital has been deeply privileged to play a part in helping these beautiful, bright little girls to a happy, healthy future. This has been a significant milestone in the hospital’s history, as the first separation of conjoined twins undertaken at this hospital, he said.
The Silongoyane girls were born to 20-year-old Bongekile Simelane and her husband Mbongeni Sihlongonyane, who looked greatly overjoyed during the media session on Tuesday.
On February 2, the 20th birthday of the twins’ mother, the hospital held a special celebration for her and the infants.
The paediatric surgeon who led the separation procedure, Dr Mariza de Villiers, said the procedure on the one-month-old babies was fairly simple as they didn’t share vital organs.
“If you look just at the procedure, it was relatively simple because we didn’t have a lot to do. The finer detail was what was the problem. We had a large team of people, and everybody involved met beforehand to plan everything. The nursing staff was 11 … and they were separated into two teams,” said Engelbrecht.
“The surgical staff, we were four people, including Dr Paul Stevens and I. We had two assistants that came and helped us. The anaesthetic team consisted of four people [Dr Henrika Rossouw, Dr Sandra Spijkerman, Dr Marleen Odendaal and Dr Jeanri Smith]. The team itself was quite big. The organisation of everything was the main thing. We had to organise the theatres, to make sure there is space for both babies and for both teams to be there at the same time. Basically it was two theatres crammed into one.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
