Emerging facts are indicative that the Siamese twins which were delivered at Delta State University Teaching Hospital in Oghara, the country home of former Governor James Onanefe Ibori, have been abandoned at the hospital following the strike action embarked upon by members of health workers union across the country.
Available reports from the hospital revealed that the strike action embarked upon by the health workers will have detrimental effect on the wellbeing of the children as they have remained unattended to even after the Delta state commissioner for health, Dr. Omordi Ononye, told journalists on Tuesday that the state government would foot the bill for the separation of the twins.
According to sources in the hospital, the Siamese twins are the only patients in the entire teaching hospital as others have been discharged and made too leave the hospital due to the health workers strike.
The source disclosed that though some doctors were on regular shift to cater for the twins, laboratory and sundry medical jobs are done outside the hospital, as the hospital workers are neither here nor there as a result of the strike.
Earlier reports had indicated the state government’s indifferent to the plight of the children as there was a wild allegation that the commissioner had said the state government was not interested in the surgery of the Siamese twins.
However, during a media briefing in Asaba, the commissioner denied the claim insisting that the state government had put plans in place to foot the entire bill for the surgery. But from Tuesday when the press briefing was had, it remained unclear if the state government has done the needful as promised.
However, the public relations officer of the ministry of health, Donald Ojebo, said the process is on as experts would be invited to come over and put strategies in place before the operation will commence.
“You know such kind of things, they don’t just jump into the operation. They need to invite some other experts and the rest to look into it before proceeding with the operation. So that process is on,” Ojebo, the public relations officer of the ministry told our correspondent on phone.
Meanwhile, the former secretary too Delta state government, Ovuozorie Macaulay, has commended the Delta state government for indicating willingness to take up the upkeep and surgery of the co-joined twins.
Macaulay, who earlier led a public support campaign for the Siamese twins, applauded Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for his efforts with an appeal to the public not to rest on their oars until the children are operated.
Macaulay, however, expressed concern over the well being of the twins in view of the strike action currently embarked on by members of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) in Delta state.
Macaulay stressed the need for public input to complement government effort, particularly, against the fact that the twins’ parents are financially handicapped.