CONJOINED twins born at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital this week are not in immediate danger and are doing well, doctors said yesterday.
The twin baby girls are joined at the chest and abdomen. They share a liver but have their own hearts.
Paediatric cardiologist Professor Antoinette Cilliers said: "They are likely to survive for sometime before they are separated. We don't think their separation is urgent."
The twins were born by Caesarian section on Monday and are being kept at the high-care Neonatal Ward.
Cilliers said the fact that the twins did not share a heart made the surgery to separate them less risky. She said it was, however, not clear if they shared a pericardial sac, which surrounds the heart.
Another paediatric cardiologist, Dr Jerome Loveland, said: "It looks like they have a single liver. That is reasonably simple to divide."
The babies cannot be named because their mother, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Klerksdorp in North West, is a minor.
Doctors could not say when the twins would be separated, but if performed, the surgery could take between four and five hours. They said their condition was not related to their mother's age and could be genetic.
The teenage mother was transferred from a hospital in Klerksdorp and arrived at the Soweto hospital on November 6. She is healthy and doing well, and currently receiving counselling, said the hospital's chief executive Johanna More.
Gauteng health and social development MEC Ntombi Mekgwe visited the mother and babies in hospital yesterday.
She said the department would work closely with the mother and her family and offer them support.
Conjoined twins not in danger
CONJOINED twins born at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital this week are not in immediate danger and are doing well, doctors said yesterday.
The twin baby girls are joined at the chest and abdomen. They share a liver but have their own hearts.
Paediatric cardiologist Professor Antoinette Cilliers said: "They are likely to survive for sometime before they are separated. We don't think their separation is urgent."
The twins were born by Caesarian section on Monday and are being kept at the high-care Neonatal Ward.
Cilliers said the fact that the twins did not share a heart made the surgery to separate them less risky. She said it was, however, not clear if they shared a pericardial sac, which surrounds the heart.
Another paediatric cardiologist, Dr Jerome Loveland, said: "It looks like they have a single liver. That is reasonably simple to divide."
The babies cannot be named because their mother, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Klerksdorp in North West, is a minor.
Doctors could not say when the twins would be separated, but if performed, the surgery could take between four and five hours. They said their condition was not related to their mother's age and could be genetic.
The teenage mother was transferred from a hospital in Klerksdorp and arrived at the Soweto hospital on November 6. She is healthy and doing well, and currently receiving counselling, said the hospital's chief executive Johanna More.
Gauteng health and social development MEC Ntombi Mekgwe visited the mother and babies in hospital yesterday.
She said the department would work closely with the mother and her family and offer them support.
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