The Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital (MAUTH), Yola, has successfully separated conjoined twins.
The hospital achieved the feat on Monday, marking the sixth such procedure in the history of the former Federal Medical Centre, now a teaching hospital.
The twins, both boys, were four months and two weeks old at the time of their separation on Monday afternoon.
The surgery was led by Professor Abubakar Auwal, a paediatric surgery expert, who noted that the three-hour operation marked the sixth successful separation of conjoined twins at the hospital by the experienced surgical team.
He explained that the twins were joined at the abdominal region, but the team successfully separated them.
“In this hospital, this is the sixth separation, but the team has had two such surgeries in Maiduguri,” he said, referring to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
MAUTH, which was established as a Federal Medical Centre in 1998, was upgraded in 2022 to serve as a centre of healthcare excellence for the public and as a practical training facility for medical students of Modibbo Adama University, Yola.
Professor Auwal said MAUTH has the equipment and support to handle critical paediatric cases, offering world-class care locally without patients needing to travel abroad.
He added that the latest surgery was conducted free of charge, with support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which funded resources and interventions for paediatric surgery at MAUTH, Yola.
Dr Salihu Bakari, TETFund Director, Centre for Excellence, said MAUTH is one of 30 centres nationwide to receive substantial investment.
“I am very happy because this is exactly why the centre was established, to give ordinary people world-class medical attention locally,” Bakari said.
The Chief Medical Director of MAUTH, Professor Adamu Bakari, commended the medical team and all staff for the successful surgery.
He highlighted the hospital’s designation as a TETFund centre for excellent paediatric surgery nationwide, noting that patients from across Nigeria now patronise MAUTH for complex procedures such as conjoined twin separation.
Shuaibu Jibir, father of the twins, who is from Taraba State, expressed gratitude for the care provided, revealing, however, that his wife, the twins’ mother, tragically died shortly after giving birth.
