Parliament to honor Soroti medics for successful conjoined twins operation

Members of Parliament are expected to recognize 14 medics from Soroti Regional Referral Hospital for the successful conjoined twin’s operation conducted last month.

The team led by Dr. Joseph Epodoi, the Consultant Surgeon at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital successfully separated conjoined twins with one having died days before the operation.

The conjoined twins had been referred to Mulago National Referral Hospital but medics there declined to carry an operation citing high risks to the living twin. The children were later returned to Soroti, forcing Dr. Epodoi and the team to face a huge task of separating the conjoined twins amidst little resources.

After the operation that lasted close to five hours, the team successfully separated the deceased twin sister from the live one. The children had shared the liver and chest wall. The news of the successful operation went viral both on social and mainstream media.

Many individuals and organization in and outside Uganda expressed gratitude to the medics for the successful operation. Some of the Teso MPs proposed for a special recognition of the team that they noted had made Teso and Uganda proud.

The Principal Private Secretary to the Speaker of Parliament has now invited Dr. Epodoi and his team to Parliament on April 7th, 2021 for the MPs to applaud them.

The letter written on Thursday indicates that there will be a motion for resolution of Parliament on Wednesday to applaud Dr. Epodoi and the team for the effort in saving the life of the living twin.

However, some people have raised mixed reactions. Denis Enamu, posted in Aribabai Updates that the work by Dr. Epodoi and the team should trigger Parliament to allocate more resources to the health sector.

“There is no need applauding Dr. Epodoi and the team when the health sector is crumbling,” he said adding “This was a failed job at the national referral hospital, Mulago. Parliament should allocate more resources truly to the health sector. A healthy population will always be resourceful and will even pay more taxes as demanded now.”

 The conjoined twin-girls were delivered at Amuria District Hospital to Joyce Alinga, a- 21- year- old of senior three who conceived during COVID-19 lockdown.

On Monday, Mulago hospital management ordered Soroti to quickly arrange for the sending of living child to Mulago, because it has better facilities.

This left staff at Soroti hospital grumbling but it was not yet clear whether they had sent the child.

In their directive, Mulago National Referral Hospital said they wanted the baby for “specialized” pediatric management in the Intensive Care Unit which is reportedly lacking at Soroti . The baby is said to be normal with its Oxygen levels above 90%, a clinically excellent saturation.

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