See A baby Born with Conjoined Twin from Buttocks

The Zambian baby, who was born in April last year, is set to undergo the five-hour operation at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka next Thursday.

Her mother Mercy Lenganji, 18, faces an anxious wait as ten specialist doctors, led by Prof Lupando Munkonge, will try to remove the feet.

The baby has already spent the past 26 days undergoing tests ahead of the risky operation.

Mercy had known from scans that she was expecting twins, but during her caesarian section at the Malcolm Mine Hospital in the Zambian town of Mufilira, doctors discovered one of the babies had not developed.

"The doctors kept my child away from me for two days after she was born because they said the sight of her would have put me in shock," said Mercy.

"They put Faith in an incubator as is the procedure with all babies born with deformities in Zambia, and only then was I allowed to see my child. They told me that I would have to wait six months for any operation to help her."

One of four children, 18-year-old Mercy's close family have helped her with the stress of the problems.

"My parents have been so supportive of me throughout this," she said.

"We have also received financial backing from the Zambian Government to help with the surgery. Without my parents and family I do not know what I would have done.

"Faith's father Martin Mwape took one look at his daughter and has never come back and I am sure this is because of her deformity

.

"My friends laughed at me when they saw my child. But that does not bother me now because I love my child and I am so hopeful of this operation that I am not going to think about their opinion.

"My family's strong Christian faith will see us through this."

Prof Mukonge said: "Once we operate on the child we expect her to make a complete recovery. This surgery is to improve the quality of Faith's life as she ages and of course, even though it carries risks, we expect full success.

"We anticipate that this will be the only major surgery that the child will ever need and even though the operation is long and complex, there will hopefully be no complications.

"As soon as Faith has recovered from the operation we will put her into a rehabilitation programme and that is where the real work will begin."