Doctors Plan To Remove Parasitic Twin

Doctors in Zambia are preparing to operate on a nine month old baby who has a parasitic twin attached to it’s buttocks.

18 year old Mercy Lenganji gave birth to little Faith Mwampe in April last year. Faith has an unformed parasitic twin emerging from her backside, and doctors fear she will be unable to walk or lead a normal life unless the unfortunate sibling is surgically removed from Faith’s bottom.

Mercy had been expecting twins after a scan during pregnancy revealed two fetuses, but unfortunately when Faith was delivered the true horror was apparent.

Mercy told reporters that Faith’s father has only visited once.

“Faith’s father Martin Mwape took one look at his daughter and has never come back and I am sure this is because of her deformity.” Mercy said.

“My friends laughed at me when they saw my child. But that does not bother me now because I love my child and I am so hopeful of this operation that I am not going to think about their opinion.” She added.

The Zambian Government have also abandoned Mercy and Faith, the family are having to cover the expensive cost of the surgery themselves.

Prof Mukonge from the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka who will be performing the operation is very confident of the outcome.

“Once we operate on the child we expect her to make a complete recovery. This surgery is to improve the quality of Faith’s life as she ages and of course, even though it carries risks, we expect full success.

“We anticipate that this will be the only major surgery that the child will ever need and even though the operation is long and complex, there will hopefully be no complications.

“As soon as Faith has recovered from the operation we will put her into a rehabilitation programme and that is where the real work will begin.” He said.

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