The twins Gracious and Precious Michael Mkono who were born conjoined on 12th July this year in Kisarawe District in Coast Region, were separated at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in September in the first surgery of its kind in the history of the country’s main referral hospital.
“We visited the mother at MNH and were notified that they could not be discharged due to poor housing condition that would not guarantee the twins survival and we were humbled to resorting to further assist the family by facilitating the construction of a home for them,” said Usman Isiaka UBA Tanzania Chief Executive Officer.
He said the Bank remains committed to positively impacting the lives of Tanzanians by partnering with local communities in support of education and various development projects.
In addition, UBA staff also raised 2m/- for the twins and their mother’s upkeep and called upon the general public to offer their helping hand to the kids.
In his remarks MNH executive director Prof Lawrence Museru said the hospital saw to it that discharging the twins and letting them live in a house such as the one they had could risk their life hence defeat all the efforts used to save their lives.
According to Prof Museru, about 34m/- has been used as costs to separate and keep the children and their mother at the hospital.
“All the efforts could have been in vain should we have allowed them to return to the house which they were born into because this is a complicated surgery and they require proper care and what they eat,” he said.
Kisarawe District Commissioner Jokate Mwegelo who received the support from UBA yesterday, said she would mobilise the community in her district to take a closer look at the family of the twins.
The surgery was a milestone achievement for the country’s main referral hospital after several other successful establishment of key services in the past two years.
MNH has enhanced its capacity to provide major services whereby the first was the successful cochlea implant in June 2017.
The hospital launched kidney transplant services and later in the year sent its experts for training on liver transplant as well.
