How timely health supplies saved Amuria conjoined twins

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What you need to know:

• Before the surgery, which lasted for three hours, Dr Epodoi reveals there was a short prayer led by a reverend sister who was part of a team of 15 physicians who helped in the surgery.

When Joyce Alinga, a Senior Three student, gave birth to conjoined twins by caesarean section during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021, the ability of health practitioners to ably avail and manage surgical supplies would be tested.

Alinga gave birth at Amuria Health Centre IV in Amuria District but was referred to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital due to the complications, after failing to get a place at Mulago Hospital.

“Seeing how hapless the grandfather was moving around with conjoined twins, one of them dead and another living, we had to do something,” recalls Dr Joseph Cuthbert Epodoi, a senior consultant surgeon at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital.

He adds: “By then, the dead child’s skin was peeling off and he was beginning to give off a pungent smell.”
Dr Sr Mary Margaret Ajiko, also a consultant surgeon at the hospital, says the conjoined twins were sharing the right lobe of the liver and the ribs but the other vital organs such as the heart and the lungs were separately used.

The doctors in Soroti hospital redrew their plans and decided to operate on the twins.
At this moment, the health workers say medical supplies from National Medical Stores (NMS) were at the centre of the successful medical procedure.

“We really want to thank NMS, at least in this hospital here, we had all the basics we needed for the operations,” recalls Dr Epodoi.

He contends that NMS supplied them with gauze, cotton, anaesthetic drugs and the switches that were used in the operation.

Dr Epodoi says medical personnel need to be creative in management of medical supplies to avoid wastage or unnecessary referrals.

“It is true that there are shortcomings here and there in terms of medical supplies due to budget constraints but you might find that one item can do different things,” he says, adding: “Let us not become fixated.”
Dr Epodoi says there are some peculiar drugs, which people need that cannot be used anywhere, for example switcher materials.

“Some surgeons would prefer specific switchers for specific outcomes but for us, we used that which was available,” he reminiscences.

Before the surgery, which lasted for three hours, Dr Epodoi reveals there was a short prayer led by a reverend sister who was part of a team of 15 physicians who helped in the surgery.

“We had to make sure that we spend as little time as possible in order to save the living baby and minimise any risks that could endanger him,” he says.

It is at the Soroti Regional Referral Hospital that the first ever baby implanted in the liver was successfully operated on.