Nigerian conjoined twin girls, Miracle and Testimony Ayeni, have been successfully separated at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
The twins joined at the lower half of the body were born in Enugu State on the 16th November, 2015. Their father, Samuel Ayeni and mother, Mary, are both from Kogi State, Nigeria.
A statement made by the Founder of the Linking Hands Foundation, LHF, Mrs Efe Farinre disclosed that the highly complex and extremely risky procedure lasted for 18 hours early this month. Farinre in the statement explained that the girls would require further surgeries.
According to the surgical team lead by Dr. Max Langham, conjoined twins occur once in 200,000 live births, with six percent of those being ischiopagus (joining by lower half of the body). Speaking after the successful separation of the twins, Mr. Samuel Ayeni said; “Without faith, things wouldn’t have worked out. When you give everything to God and believe, He will give you peace. I have the faith that He is helping us.”
Farinre recounted that LHF was introduced to the Ayenis by an extended friend and after a telephone discussion with Mr. Ayeni, LHF made a commitment to help solicit financial and non-financial support towards the medical needs of the twins, as part of its “Every-Child-Counts Initiative.”
While also giving glory to God for the twins’ successful separation, Farinre added that though LHF had received an estimated quotation of $1,000,000 from one of the hospitals the organisation had reached out to on behalf of the Ayeni twins, Le Bonheur Children’s took up the treatment and surgical separation of the twins at no charge.
The hospital has also provided free accommodation for the Ayenis at its FedEx Family House for the duration of the twins’ treatment.
