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Outlook: Anick and Destin, the miracle conjoined twins of DR Congo

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Anick and Destin

28/12/2022 GMT

Anick and Destin, the miracle conjoined twins of DR Congo

BBC World Service - Outlook, Anick and Destin, the miracle conjoined twins of DR Congo

The remarkable story of DR Congo's first successful separation of conjoined twins

Born in a remote village, the operation to separate conjoined twins Anick and Destin was a first for DR Congo in 2017. Then all contact with the family was lost.

Born in a remote village, the successful operation to separate conjoined twins Anick and Destin was a first for the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2017. After giving birth to the twins, naturally, in a rural medical centre, their mother Claudine Mukhena realised the girls' only chance for survival lay a day's travel away, at a hospital in the regional centre of Vanga. With her husband Zaiko, she undertook the perilous journey on dirt roads, the whole family crowded onto one motorbike, to get her daughters' treatment. At Vanga hospital the family met Dr Junior Mudji, who organised the pioneering operation to separate the twins at Kinshasa hospital, 300 miles away. Against difficult odds, the twins survived, and their story travelled around the world. Then all contact with the family was lost. 

Now Dr Junior Mudji and Claudine Mukhena, together with Jo Lamb of medical aviation charity MAF, tell the remarkable story of Anick and Destin's birth, their separation — and their lives since then.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Producer: Laura Thomas
Presenter: Emily Webb

(Photo: Anick and Destin. Credit: Jaclyn Reiersen, MAF)

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