The neonatal intensive care unit of the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona hospital today received two conjoined twin patients who will undergo surgery in the coming days to separate their bodies so that they can have a normal life. Khadija and Cherive come from Mauritania and will be hospitalized with their families.
The patients were born on October 8 joined at the top of the abdomen, with a single umbilical cord and a combined weight of 5.2 kg. Their clinical situation is stable and they are breathing without difficulty and without the need for supplemental oxygen.
They are being cared for, through the Cuida’m de Sant Joan de Déu solidarity program, by the neonatology and surgery teams of the Barcelona hospital, as well as by specialists from the same center in cardiology, gastroenterology, nutrition and anesthesia, among others.
At this time, complementary tests are being carried out on them to those carried out in their country of origin in order to have more precise information and plan their separation.
The surgery is scheduled for the next few days and recovery will take place in the neonatal intensive care unit of the Sant Joan de Déu hospital.
The girls were transported from Mauritania on an Air Force plane with a critical care position, prepared and adapted to the case of the conjoined twins. The army has published photographs of the operation in air evacuation medical (UMAER).
Located in northwest Africa, south of Morocco, Mauritania is a country of 4.4 million inhabitants, 90% of which is in the Sahara Desert. Sanitary conditions are extremely precarious. Therefore, before traveling to Mauritania, it is essential to take out medical insurance that includes the possibility of air evacuation if necessary, indicates the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Hospitals in general do not meet the minimum standards,” adds the ministerial information. There are public hospitals in Nouakchott, Kaedi, Nema and in Aioun-el-Atrouss. Hospitals financed by Spanish cooperation have been inaugurated in Atar and Nouadhibou.
Chinguetti also has a hospital built by a Spanish foundation. “In the other provincial capitals there are only modest health centers, and in the rest of the country, some dispensaries. All of them suffer from a profound lack of material and personal resources, and the care they can provide is very insufficient.” There are some private clinics that, despite having better organization, also lack resources.
