Twins lose battle to live

THE conjoined twins born at Oshakati on September 11 died in the Katutura State Hospital on Friday.

Dr Johann Rossouw, a heart surgeon from the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday confirmed the deaths of the twins, Monika Ngendinomuwa and Taimi Talohole. Dr Rossouw, who is currently in Namibia, told The Namibian that the two tiny girls died of heart failure.The twins shared a heart and liver.According to Dr Rossouw, they had a heart defect and not enough oxygen-rich blood could be pumped through their bodies.The twins were brought to Windhoek about a week after their birth to be examined by Dr Rossouw, and to establish whether they could be separated.At the time, doctors said they were suffering from “blue-baby syndrome” – a lack of oxygen – and any decision on whether to separate them would have to wait three months.”Because of this problem they had, we were worried whether they would survive the three months,” Dr Rossouw told The Namibian yesterday.If the twins had been separated, one of them would definitely have died, while the other would only have had a slim chance of survival, doctors said earlier.Their mother, Elizabeth Paulus (35) from Iiwiyongo village in the Oshana Region, said in an earlier interview that she would accept God’s will.”Whether they will survive or die, I will accept what God will give me,” she said.Nurse Elvira Moses at the Oshakati State Hospital, who is a friend of the girls’ parents, said the parents announced the twins’ death on the NBC Oshiwambo radio service yesterday morning.The twins’ bodies were still in Windhoek and would be transported to Oshakati for burial this week, Moses said.”I think God did well to have taken the two sisters together to heaven, because they would only have suffered here on earth,” Moses said.Dr Rossouw, who is currently in Namibia, told The Namibian that the two tiny girls died of heart failure.The twins shared a heart and liver.According to Dr Rossouw, they had a heart defect and not enough oxygen-rich blood could be pumped through their bodies.The twins were brought to Windhoek about a week after their birth to be examined by Dr Rossouw, and to establish whether they could be separated.At the time, doctors said they were suffering from “blue-baby syndrome” – a lack of oxygen – and any decision on whether to separate them would have to wait three months.”Because of this problem they had, we were worried whether they would survive the three months,” Dr Rossouw told The Namibian yesterday.If the twins had been separated, one of them would definitely have died, while the other would only have had a slim chance of survival, doctors said earlier.Their mother, Elizabeth Paulus (35) from Iiwiyongo village in the Oshana Region, said in an earlier interview that she would accept God’s will.”Whether they will survive or die, I will accept what God will give me,” she said.Nurse Elvira Moses at the Oshakati State Hospital, who is a friend of the girls’ parents, said the parents announced the twins’ death on the NBC Oshiwambo radio service yesterday morning.The twins’ bodies were still in Windhoek and would be transported to Oshakati for burial this week, Moses said.”I think God did well to have taken the two sisters together to heaven, because they would only have suffered here on earth,” Moses said.