REMEMBER THE SIAMESE TWINS… ‘Luke and Joseph’

‘WHERE there’s a will, there’s a way.’ This expression is story of the first Zambian Siamese twins; Luke and Joseph Banda, that there are no boundaries for those who are have strong will.

Unsurprisingly, the birth of Luke and Joseph on January 21, 1997 drew global attention. The boys, were joined at the top of their heads and facing in opposite directions.

At 11 months, the twins were separated by a team of 50 medical staff led by a world-class neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson at South Africa’s Ga-Rankuwa Hospital. Twenty-three years on, Twins Plus Foundation under co-founder, Walusungu Silweya thought to ink of these twins.

Nevertheless, this is a different case of Kawambwa born Siamese twins; Bupe and Mapalo, who were joined at the abdomen and did not share any vital organs, were later separated in 2017 at Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital (UTH) – a first for the hospital.

For Luke and Joseph were joined on the head. However, it was a rare form of congenital abnormality called craniopagus twins. Only about six percent of all conjoined twins are said to be born like that.

Therefore, Siamese twins are a biological result of a single fertilized egg splitting to create two identical babies. The term Siamese twins is derived from the indigenous Siamese twins, Eng and Chang born in 1811, of Chinese parents in Siam, now known as Thailand.

Eng and Chang were joined at the sternum by a muscular ligament and they remained united throughout their life. But it was not until 1979 that the first case of twins joined at the skull was reported in medical journals.

Twin’s Korner with Walusungu Silweya

@Kalemba2020

Twins Plus Foundation
‘The voice for twins’
motto: ‘Better two than One’

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