Conjoined Twins surgery
Ugwoke Obinna heard about Anavara from one of the camps we conducted in Nigeria and approached us. This was the first time we had received a case for conjoined surgery. Hence we sent the report to hospitals that had done such surgeries in the past successfully.
We got an estimate from 3 JCI approved hospitals. Ugwoke was not affluent and he was looking forward to sponsors to supplement the treatment costs. Based on the estimates received and the past experience in such complex conjoined twins surgery, Ugwoke selected to go with Naryana hospital in Bengaluru.
We coordinated his visa application form and submitted to the Indian consulate in Lagos. However we did not get the visa even after 3 weeks as this was a period when Indian embassy was double checking the applications, and visa approvals were coming from N. Delhi. Left with no choice, we tweeted to Indian Foreign minister Mrs. Sushma Swaraj with picture of the children. She immediately recognized the genuineness of the case and enjoined on the ministry personnel to issue visa.
On receipt of visa, we arranged for other requirements like ticket, accommodation, receiving in India and all other logistics. They arrived in India. The hospital did all the diagnostics of the children before surgery. The surgery itself took around 9 hours. Both the babies were safe and the parents were very happy about the outcome.