Conjoined twins to undergo surgery in 2 weeks

Conjoined twins to undergo surgery in 2 weeks

MIRACLE BABIES: Tinashe and Tinotenda

• Conjoined Zimbabwe twins to be separated

• Killer dad on the run after 2 toddlers axed to death

• Man bites off, swallows finger in bar brawl

• Hitch hikers forced to dig up graves

• Man dries at beer drinking contest

• Woman carried 'money spinning' lizards in handbag

• Gwanda mum gives birth to 6kg baby

• Witchcraft blamed as stones rain on family

• Suspected thief quizzes accuser, then dies in dock

• Man grows female genital organ on face

• Priest won't bless dreadlocked man's wedding

• Family won't bury relative over unpaid lobola

• Goblins burn traditional healer

• Zim clamps down on male hookers

• Headmaster gets 5 years for incest affair

• Man who sired 2 kids with own daughter jailed

• Man has two kids with own daughter!

• Headmaster in 5-year relationship with daughter

• Zim sex beast nailed in UK

• Zim man gets life for killing wife in UK

• Zim man on murder rap in UK

• 'Zim doctor groped nurses in Canada'

• Zim man faces kidnap charges in Wales

• Nyarirangwe hits back at rape charges

• HIV tests for Zimbabwe preachers

By Staff Reporter

CANADIAN doctors say two conjoined Zimbabwean twins flown to that country last month for life-saving surgery are to be separated in the next two weeks.

Tinashe and Tinotenda were born last July in Zimbabwe joined at the liver. A Toronto doctor Rachel Spitzer who delivered them mobilised an international fund to whisk the two twins to Canada.

Reports from Canada say the twins’ surgery is scheduled tentatively for mid-February. The two twins were "doing well" as they await their operation at Sick Kids Hospital, one report said.

Spitzer who was in Zimbabwe on a Ve’ahavta – the Canadian Humanitarian & Relief Committee-sponsored research mission at the Howard Hospital when she delivered the twins has been talking about the miracle.

“Tinashe and Tinotanda were the first set of conjoined twins I had ever delivered, and when I saw them the day after they were born, I knew I couldn’t just leave them lying there,” says Spitzer, 28, a fourth year resident at the University of Toronto’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“I got on the Internet and corresponded with surgeons around the world. One of those e-mails was sent to Jacob Langer, chief of general surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. I described the babies to Dr. Langer and he thought they were good candidates for surgery."

Her next step was to apply to the Herbie Fund at the Hospital for Sick Children.

“The Herbie Fund covers the medical costs of providing children from developing countries with life-saving surgery they can’t get in their own country,” she says. “By the time the twins were six weeks old, the Herbie Fund had agreed to cover their medical costs, which they estimate to be about Can$200,000.”

Though raising the medical costs of the procedure is an accomplishment in itself, more help was required to cover the cost of airfare, accommodation, meals and incidental expenses to enable the twins’ mother Elizabeth and their nurse Grace to accompany the babies to Toronto. For this, Spitzer turned to the Jewish community and sought the help of a number of organizations.

Ve’ahavta, which helped organize Spitzer’s trip to Zimbabwe, was happy to help and quickly jumped on board as the Canadian host organization.

“We helped co-ordinate accommodations, meals and funds, and created a support network for the family,” says Sarah Zelcer, director of education and assistant director of international programs for Ve’ahavta. “Many volunteers jumped at the chance to offer support.
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com