The surgery which is the first of its kind to be undertaken in the history of the hospitals 111 years of existence lasted for 55 minutes.
It was a beautiful sight to behold with medical doctors grinning from ear to ear at the Akuse Government Hospital after the delivery.
The Akuse Government Hospital at the beginning of the year was in the news during the shooting and killing of the ambulance driver transferring a pregnant woman on referral from the facility to Koforidua.
But the unfortunate incident has compelled administrators of the facility to push a notch higher to give its optimum best to patients despite the numerous challenges that confront the facility.
Barely two months after the bizarre incident, the Akuse Hospital with all its major challenges delivered all-male siamese twins on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.
According to the medical superintendent of the facility, Dr Edna Asamoah-Agyare “a routine scan on the mother of the twins in January revealed that she was carrying conjoined twins. We, therefore, took interest in the case and sponsored the mother to see a specialist at the Koforidua Regional Hospital for confirmation. After everything, we, therefore, gave her referral letters at two different times to the Koforidua and VRA hospital, but she refused to go because she said she is more comfortable with us at Akuse Government Hospital”.
Dr Mrs Asamoah-Agyare continued that despite the hospital’s lack of equipment and limited resources, they had no choice than to prioritize the case as the patient had financial challenges and more so had become comfortable with the care she was receiving at the Akuse Government Hospital.
The surgery which lasted for 55 minutes was undertaken by the lead doctor, Dr Taurus Valmont who is a surgical doctor at the VRA hospital at Akosombo with support from Dr Alhassan Musa who is the clinical care coordinator at the Akuse Government Hospital.
The lead doctor, Dr Valmont spoke to the media moments after the successful surgery.
He said: “Today was a scheduled day for the mother to be operated on, and we had everything available at the theatre to make sure the surgery was very successful. Because of the conjoined nature, we had few challenges with saturation. Saturation of the babies was dropping, but the team managed to resuscitate them and as of the time we were leaving the theatre the saturation level of the babies had increased to over 90 percent and the mother’s vitals were very stable. The babies together with their mother are all doing fine currently pending transfer to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital”.
Dr Valmont further noted that “the good news is that the conjoined twins have two separate organs. They don’t share a common organ which is a good sign for separation”.
He hinted that the twins would be managed by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where they would be separated after a year.
Dr Alhassan Musa who is the Clinical care coordinator at the Akuse Government Hospital who managed the mother until the surgery was performed shared his experience on how the facility managed to pull the surgery off with Citi News.
“We had prepared for delivery for 35 weeks and three days which was April 6. So we had really prepared very well as the patient was fit for surgery. As a team, we went through a number of simulation sessions to ensure everything went on well. We went for midline insertion to give us enough room to get the babies out to avoid traumatizing one of the babies. We again had to preserve the uterus as the woman had fertility wishes, so we opted for a ‘J’ insertion to enable us to preserve the fertility of the woman for future pregnancy. Going into this surgery, every team member knew what they were up to, and we executed it to perfection”.
Dr Alhassan however used the opportunity to appeal for some help from government and philanthropist as the Akuse hospital is in dire need of assistance.
The Member of Parliament from North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa whose constituency the 27-year-old patient is coming from was full of excitement.
He thus donated two incubators to the facility and went ahead to pledge his willingness to support the babies and their mother throughout the period till they are separated.
The babies together with their mother are currently doing very well and have since been transferred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for further care.
