For the Ajibola family, a young couple that reside in Jos, the second pregnancy of the wife, Yemisi, was a unique one. After waiting for six years to have another baby, the news of another baby on the way was good news until the baby eventually came and it turned out to be twins. A siamese twins joined in the genital area.
Born last Wednesday, January 19, 2011, at home around 3.00 a.m., the siamese twins were meant to be buried apparently because of their bizarre status and the feeling that they might be dead. But luck came their way as one of them was noticed to be breathing. They were immediately rushed to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State.
Weighing about 2.5 kg before surgery, the twins were living on one heart. Although, the baby girl was fully formed, her other twin had no head; its legs, intestine and other organs were partially formed, while its sex status could not even be confirmed. They were born three weeks before the expected date of delivery suggested by ultrasound test.
Though, these siamese twins are not the first in Nigeria, they were the first to be separated at UCH, Ibadan, after its refurbishment by the Federal Government as one of the nation’s five star-hospitals during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
It took the six-member team of medical experts, led by Dr Olukayode Ogundoyin, a paediatric surgeon three hours in the theatre to separate the co-joined twins described as a parasitic type. The twin that had no heart but relied on the other to breathe as well as get nourishment from their mother.
After the operation, only the girl baby made it. The other which had no heart, intestine and legs had to be sacrificed for the surviving girl who had greater percentage of survival and a complete organ and body system.
For the little girl recuperating at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, the surgeons had to do a reconstruction of her honeypot as well as correct the position of her anus.
There is no reason to fear that Baby Ajibola would not grow up to be a lady or that the surgerical operation might later on affect her ability to procreate, considering the results from CT, MRI and others that were carried out on her by her doctors.
No doubt, the parasitic nature of the partially formed baby explained why the well-formed twin, after the surgery weighed 2kgs and the rate at which she was gaining weight under the intensive care.
Meanwhile, the improperly formed twin had been sent to pathologists for a thorough assessment. However, what caused a disruption of growth in the siamese twins remains a mystery that the hospital might unravel in a short time from now.
Mr Kazeem Ajibola, the 33-year old father of the siamese twins, who works with a lotto company in Ibadan stated, “when they were delivered at home, we were so scared and initially thought about burying them, until we noticed that one was breathing.”
Mr Ajibola said it was not to his knowledge that his wife was going to deliver a set of twins.
According to him, “we have been separated for a while. While she stays in Jos, I had relocated to Ibadan. But I send money regularly to her for upkeep and part of the money sent was to cover things like ultrasound test.”
Certainly, the decision that Mrs Jumoke Ajibola, a patent medicine vendor, when she is close to her expected delivery dates should travel back to Ibadan is not surprising considering the persistent, unrest in Jos and its environs.
Mr Ajibola, while claiming that the wife was receiving antenatal care from a community-based birth attendant in Jos, said the improper growth of the second twin could not have resulted from an attempt by the wife to abort the pregnancy.
“Our first baby is about six years old and already there are pressures on us to have another baby. Aside, the fact that we have been warned never to abort a pregnancy, already, pressure is being mounted on us to have another baby,” he declared.
But it is not yet uhuru for baby Ajibola. The parents still need a lot of financial support for her medical care at the hospital. Nigerians should please come to her aid.
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