By PHILIP MWAKIO
A woman has given birth to triplets, with two of them conjoined.She delivered the three baby boys at a rural hospital in Kwale County.
The conjoined twins, otherwise known as Siamese twins, weighed 2.7 kilogrammes and are joined from the chest to private parts.
Mrs Mwaka Chaka, already a mother of four, gave birth to the triplets through normal delivery at the Tiwi Rural Hospital.
"The mother and other child are in perfect condition and we are talking to Amref to help in airlifting them to Nairobi for specialised care," said Dr Twahir Ahmed, a paediatrician at the Coast Provincial General Hospital. Twahir described the conjoined twins’ case as a very delicate one.
Two of the triplets delivered in Tiwi in South Coast, Mombasa, at the weekend are conjoined from the chest. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD] |
"They are relatively very small babies. It is at the Kenyatta National Hospital where specialists can assess them to see whether they share vital organs like the heart or liver," Twahir said. Doctors are expected to look into the possibility of separating the conjoined babies.
The father of the triplets, Nyota Phunga Mrema, 22, who hails from Magodzoni village in Matuga constituency, appealed for medical assistance.
"I have never experienced this. I am a shamba boy (farm hand) and my earnings are too little to meet such medical exercises," he said.
Siamese twins is a rare phenomenon and the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 100,000 births.
According to medical sources, there is somewhat a higher incidence of conjoined twins in Southwest Asia and parts of the African continent.
