Professor Lukman Olajide Abdur-Raheem, the leader of the team that separated conjoined twins in January 2021 at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), has hinted that UITH has lost one of the separated twins two weeks before her second birthday due to adhesive intestinal obstruction.
As part of its 222nd Inaugural Lecture, which was themed “Shades of Joy and Cry: Intricacies of Children’s Surgery for Restoring Smiles and Hope for the Future”, the university don made the disclosure in Ilorin at the weekend.
During the lecture, Prof. Abdur- Raheem stated that the twin sister was hale and hearty and sitting next to her mother in the university auditorium, where the lecture took place.
A set of female twins, successfully separated by doctors at the UITH, was presented to the public on January 14, 2021.
Despite the hospital’s lack of equipment, the feat was reported at the time.
Prof. Abdullah Dasilva Yussuf, Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UITH, who briefed the press on the occasion, attributed the accomplishment to the team’s commitment and determination.
Nevertheless, the team leader explained, “the conjoined twins are rare anomalies resulting from an abnormal division of fertilized ovum during the process of twinning.”.
Conjoined twins, he said, have intricate parts that are shared in unique manner from the head to the toes and require thorough investigations to determine anatomic and physiologic implications of separation of the shared parts.
He added that, “About 19 pairs of conjoined twins were reported to have been born alive or dead in Nigeria in the last nine decades, from which the UITH, Ilorin had managed three pairs between 2005 to 2015, even under fragile conditions.
“In our setting,, we adopted adult investigative and therapeutic equipment for optimal outcomes since many children equipment are not available”.
According to him, the cohesive 66-member multi-disciplinary collaborative team under his leadership was responsible for the first successful separation of conjoined twins in January 2021.
“The application of simulation skills in the clinical scenarios, he said, was presented and highly commended at the 2021 Bethune Round Table conference in Canada”.
Professor Abdur-Raheem, who described the burden of paediatric surgical diseases, including birth defects, neonatal surgery, congenital anomalies, and their impact on the physical, mental, financial, and social status of children and parents, stated that the prevalence of birth defects in Nigeria ranges from 2.5 to 11.5 per 1,000 live births across the six geopolitical zones.
He also noted that the Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) is still high at 26.6 per cent, attributing this factor to lack of access to surgery which includes the significant shortage workforce.
He revealed that, “Globally, 1.7 billion children do not have access to safe, affordable and timely surgical care, with the sub-Saharan Africa bearing the largest burden because up to 50 per cent of the population are children”.
He therefore advised the Federal Government to step up paediatric surgical care awareness at the primary health care level, so that the conditions are identified early and appropriate counsel are provided to caregivers.
He also called for all existing children hospital to be upgraded so as to have complimentary well equipped and staffed Paediatric surgical services at the state and federal levels.
In an appeal to all levels of government, he called for the government to make Laparoscopy, also known as keyhole surgery, accessible and affordable to indigent Nigerians.
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