The Kenyatta National hospital has left the fate of conjoined twins born in Mombasa hanging in the balance after refusing to admit them due to lack of necessary equipment.
It is reported that managers at the institution said that the referral hospital did not have enough ventilators.
The hospital said that it only had one ICU bed with a ventilator and each baby needed its own breathing machine.
A source within Amref told the Daily Nation that they were ready to airlift the twins from Mombasa but KNH declined to take them in citing inadequate ventilators.
It was expected that the two babies who were born conjoined in the lower abdomen, would be flown to Nairobi for specialized care.
However, officials at the Coast General Hospital where the infants were born said that the twins were in stable condition. Hospital's chief administrator, Iqbal Khandwalla, said the babies were likely sharing a liver.
This is the second incidence of conjoined twins in a week, after a Kisii woman also gave birth to twins joined at the chest last week.
However, the pair died while on their way to Kenyatta National Hospital where the delicate surgery to separate them was to be carried out.
Amref expressed that they are awaiting response from Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital which they had requested to admit the babies as part of the non-profit organisation's corporate social responsibility.
Efforts by Kenyans.co.ke to reach Kenyatta National Hospital were unsuccessful as the spokesman Simon Ithae could not be reached. The officers we talked to could neither confirm nor deny any such reports.
