Londile Moyo
Health Desk
Tinashe and Tinotenda Mufuka, Zimbabwe’s first conjoined twins to be separated successfully, are set to turn 22 on July 28.
The boys, Tinashe and Tinotenda, were joined at the abdomen and shared a liver. The twins were born to Elizabeth Mufuka from Chiweshe at Howard Mission Hospital in 2004.
The boys were flown to Toronto, Canada, after it was determined that the Hospital for Sick Kids was the only hospital with the medical expertise and financial capacity to cover expenses the time.
Zimbabwe would then conduct its first historical operation of conjoined twin boys in 2014, when Kupakwashe and Tapiwanashe Chitiyo from Murehwa were separated at Harare Children’s Hospital.
Then came Anotipaishe and Anotidaishe Mutare from Bankert. The twin girls successfully underwent surgery at Harare Hospital in 2021.
The Mufuka conjoined twins were born at Howard Hospital on July 28, 2004, before being flown to Sick Kids Hospital in December 2004. They were only operated on March 7, 2005, after it was discovered that they were malnourished. It took a team of 25 doctors and nurses about five hours to carry out the separation surgery.
The twins were discovered by a Canadian doctor who delivered them at Howard Hospital. Dr. Rachel Spitzer, a Toronto obstetrician, was at Howard serving there for three months as a volunteer through the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee.
Dr. Paul Thistle, a Toronto-trained chief medical officer at Howard Hospital and lay member of the Salvation Army, alerted the Salvation Army in Canada to the birth of the twins and their need for help.
The process had its hitches as it took the Howard doctors and an entire day to send an image of the conjoined twins by email to Canada from Harare for assessment. This was due to the poor internet connectivity in Harare, but it did not deter them.
In response, the Salvation Army agreed to cover the cost of flights and provide practical support to the family during its stay in Toronto in partnership with the host organization Ve’ahavta, which has supported Howard Hospital for many years.
After the successful surgery, Tinashe and Tinotenda had to stay a bit longer to have surgery on their cleft lips and palates.
The twins, now 21, were guests on a Canadian podcast, the Avrum Rosenweig Show via internet link. The twins said that all these years, nobody had sat with them to explain that they were born conjoined, save for some pictures in Canadian newspaper cuttings that they saw.
The twins went through the interview with the help of a Shona interpreter, Sister Pedrinah Muso from Howard Hospital as they cannot speak English.
The twins said they were grateful to the doctors who took part in the surgery. The twins are out of high school and eke out a living from their poultry project at Mufuka Village in Chiweshe.
Asked about their hopes and aspirations, Tinashe said, “We hope one day to have our own properties and leave our grandfather’s homestead in Mufuka.”
Tinashe and Tinotenda currently live with their mother, Elizabeth, at her father’s homestead. The twins have two older sisters. Their father is an absent dad. The twins, who claimed they did not “have girlfriends as they were too young”, hope one day to get married.
Since the surgery, they said they have never had any serious medical problems except back problems, when they overwork. Conjoined twins are extremely rare, occurring in about 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 200,000 live births globally.
However, it’s estimated that the prevalence at conception is higher, around 1 in 50,000 pregnancies, but many result in miscarriage or stillbirth.
Conjoined twins are a type of identical twin, and their formation is due to the incomplete splitting of a single fertilized egg.
Source: Twins Association of Zimbabwe
Online Reporter