Two Cameroonian girls born as conjoined twins, separated by doctors in Lyon in November, have spend their first Christmas as regular twins out of the hospital. Bissie and Eyenga Merveille are to return home to Cameroon in January.
Bissie and Eyenga Merveille were joined by the abdomen when they were born in November 2018. Doctors in France separated them in
November during a five-hour operation that involved separating their shared liver.
One of the two girls had to undergo a heart operation two weeks later, but is now recovering.
“The little girl has gained weight and is recovering,” said the hopsital and the Chaine de l’Espoir, the charities that organised their transfer
from Cameroon to France, in a statement.
The twins’ mother had taken refuge in a hospital in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, after being rejected by her family when she gave
birth to conjoined, or Siamese, twins.
Bissie and Eyenga Merveille enjoying one of their moments as regular twins
The charities took her case on, and brought her to France with the help of the Cameroonian government.
The family is being hosted in the le Val-de-Saône, where they will stay until a final medical exam before leaving back to Cameroon.
Rejected by family
Sisters Bissie and Eyenga Merveille—their family name is the French word for “marvel”—were born in Cameroon on November 6, 2018,
joined front-to-front and partly sharing a liver, the hospital said in a statement.
After the marathon separation in southeastern French city Lyon, which involved some 20 surgeons, doctors, and other medical experts, the
girls were put into emergency care and said to be in a stable condition.
They were brought to France for the life-changing procedure by the charity organisation La Chaine de l’Espoir.
Rejected by the girls’ father and members of her family, the twins’ mother Mayah fled her town of Ayos to Cameroon’s capital Yaounde
some 140 kilometres (87 miles) away, where she and her daughters took refuge at a hospital where they lived awaiting the operation.
