The Siamese twin girls born in the Arwyp hospital in Kempton Park on Wednesday night are doing well, the hospital said on Friday night.
Hospital superintendent Wiam Stander said the girls are being given limited oral feedings, which will be increased from Monday. ”We are very careful to make sure that they can tolerate the oral feeds,” he said. ”But they are doing very well. They cry like normal babies and they move normally.”
He said the babies will ideally stay in the hospital for the next four to six months while scans and tests are done to facilitate their separation.
A team of doctors, including South African and foreign specialists, will handle the separation.
”We want to make sure that they’re strong and that they tolerate their food very well before we move on to separate them.”
Usually one Siamese twin is weaker than the other, but Stander said it looks as if the girls are equally strong. ”But we don’t want to make early predictions.”
The girls, Danielle and Danika, are joined above the ear. They were born by Caesarean section on 36 weeks and weighed a combined 3,96kg.
”They were under stress during the birth, and they did compete in the womb, but their weight is within normal limits,” Stander said.
He said the parents, 28-year-old Nitesh and 31-year-old Kribashnee, are very excited. (The family asked that their surname not be mentioned.)
”At first they had their doubts, but since they have seen the calibre of the doctors in the team, they became very excited.”
Stander said according to his research there are only five Siamese twins in the world who have not been separated, due to various reasons. All of them are older, some well into their teens. — Sapa