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AT the weekend, the world’s oldest living conjoined twins Ronnie and Donnie Galyon of Dayton, Ohio in the United States of America celebrated a big milestone when they officially outlived the original “Siamese” twins, Eng and Chang Bunker.
The Galyon twins celebrated turning 62 years, 8 months and 7 days old at a block party thrown by their brother Jim Galyon and his wife along with plenty of friends and neighbours. This October they could break the world record for the oldest ever conjoined twins after they turn 63.

This is remarkable because conjoined twins, who are born with the skin and internal organs fused together, are rare and barely survive births or the early years of their lives. Those who live and are privileged enough to undergo surgery to separate them, are lucky if they survive it.

This is why Zimbabweans should be celebrating the successful operation to separate twin boys Kupakwashe and Tapiwanashe Mangoro who were joined from the lower chest to the upper abdomen and shared a liver.

A team of 50 medical personnel comprising specialists such as paediatricians, urologists, orthopaedics, plastic surgeons, radiologists, anesthesiologists and support staff such as nurses — all from Zimbabwe — performed the delicate process of separating the twins born to humble parents from Murehwa.

The eight-hour operation, performed at Harare Children’s Hospital on Tuesday last week, will go down in history as one of the foremost surgical achievements in Africa and the world.

Not since December 3, 1967, when Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has the imagination of the world been captured by a medical breakthrough considering the poor infrastructure and limited resources available in Zimbabwe.

The milestone also bears testimony to the talent and dedication available in Zimbabwe despite years of economic strangulation wrought by illegal sanctions and a brain drain spawned by poor remuneration of specialists and other medical personnel.

Zimbabwe lost a lot of its professionals most of them in the medical, engineering and other specialised fields to other countries at the height of its economic challenges but the country is slowly recovering from that era with some of its essential services slowly coming to life after years of haemorrhaging.

The health delivery system is far from perfect with hospitals still facing shortages of drugs and surgical sundries while its infrastructure remains old and dilapidated.

Despite these challenges, our health personnel have been resilient and exhibited remarkable dedication to duty and the medical breakthrough recorded at Harare Hospital is one fine example of Zimbabwe’s health care potential.

The successful separation of the Mangoro twins also leaves one wondering where Zimbabwe could have been were it not for the ruinous sanctions and years of stagnation. Surely, Zimbabwe could have achieved this milestone much earlier and most of the medical procedures requiring thousands of dollars to perform outside the country could have been done locally with substantial savings.

Clearly, we have the talent and what we need is the necessary support to enable it to bloom.

Not that we are surprised because Zimbabwe has always led in terms of academic achievement on the continent and has exported most of its talented people to its neighbours while some are flourishing in so called first world countries where they are at the top of their game.

Government should therefore ensure that it lures back most of its skilled professionals to develop the nation. To do this, it needs to offer competitive perks and capacitate the critical sectors of the economy so that it harnesses the best of its talents and ensure that they work for their country.

As the nation waits with bated breath for the Mangoro twins to pull through the next few critical weeks of their lives, we can’t help but be proud of the team of medical personnel who made it all possible.

Dr Bothwell Mbuvayesango and his team deserve all the honour and praise being showered on them at this juncture. They have certainly put Zimbabwe on the world map and exhibited the true spirit of determination and resilience inherent in Zimbabweans. We are indeed a nation of winners and achievers and the entire world will sit up and take note.