Doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) have successfully separated conjoined twins in a delicate 23 hour surgery said to be a major breakthrough in Africa’s healthcare  as its the first ever sarcophagus surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sacrophagus  twins, Blessing and Favour  have been in KNH since 5th September 2014 following their referral from St. Theresa Hospital, Kiirua in Meru County and their mother Caroline Mukiri has always been hopeful that her children will eventually get help.

“The multidisciplinary team of over fifty (50) medical specialists including paediatric surgeons, neurosurgeons, plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anesthetists and nursing teams performed the 23 hour long highly delicate surgery on 1st November 2016 at the KNH Main Theatres leading to the successful separation of the twins. The surgery ended 2nd November, 2016 at 5:00am,” KNH said in a statement.

The children, who were born each fully formed except but their lower spines and rump were fused together and they shared an excretory opening, have been admitted in the Specialized Surgical Paediatric Ward for over two years to allow development of key organs and also enable them gain appropriate muscles to withstand the surgery.

“Surgery of this nature usually required planning and regular consultation by a multi-disciplinary team of KNH and School of Health Sciences, UON specialists to exchange ideas on how best to perform the procedure while minimizing risk of either paralysis or neural damage,” the statement read.