HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) – Zimbabwean surgeons have successfully separated conjoined twin babies, a first for the country’s down-at-heel health service and an achievement that has been hailed by President Robert Mugabe.
“The surgery went very well,” surgeon Bothwell Mbuwayesango who led the team of 50 medical personnel told AFP. “The babies are fine and are doing very well.”
The twin two-month-old babies were joined from the chest to the upper abdomen and shared a liver.
They were separated in an eight-hour operation at a state hospital in the capital Harare last week.
Surgical separations have been carried out for decades elsewhere, but with Zimbabwe’s state hospitals widely criticized for lacking vital equipment and drugs, politicians have jumped on this achievement.
Mugabe visited the twins and congratulated the all-local medical team who operated on the babies.
“I am overwhelmed,” he said after visiting the infants. “I say to you, congratulations. Congratulations to the entire team. You have done the nation proud. You have raised our name higher.”
Mugabe who blames Western sanctions for the country’s woes including the poor state of health facilities, said despite the embargo Zimbabwe has managed to perform such an operation.
“The suffering we have because of sanctions, but you can still perform wonders. The world will be talking about us, some will not believe because they do not want to believe,” he said.
The European Unions and United States maintain that Mugabe and his wife remain on the sanctions list for rights abuses and electoral fraud.
Source: news.yahoo.com
Don't we get tied of sanctions the US and her allies are always imposing on countries, especially Afurakan countries. The sanctions on Zimbabwe they say are because of human rights violations, which they say people who have opposed President Mugaba were killed. This is such a convinent excuse to impose sanctions on a country whose leader they hate because of his land reform act. Land that was stolen from the Zimbabwean people by whites. And now they are making the people suffer because of a lie. We know about their illegal sanctions look at poor Haiti. Since they are lying on the president, then the president is right, these sanctions are illegal, and the UN agrees with Obama and the west. By the way people, the UN is control by white countries, or America and the west allies. Getting sanction against Zimbabwe was a pieice of cake. So folks, this is white supremacy at its best coming up against, a black man they call a tyrant. Why would they make the Zimbabwe people suffer like that? But, by the grace of the creator, Zimbabwe is making progress. All praise to President Mugaba and the people.
Image copyright by http://designaid.org – please, if you already use my photographs for your articles, give credit. This image is from the maternity at Howard Hospital, Zimbabwe. Thanks.