State's first test tube babies : Medical science blesses couple
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 19 2009: That medical science has gone a long way in ameliorating the suffering on mankind besides bringing a smile on the face of many has been proven in many cases and Manipur today has a couple who can be inlcuded in the list of those blessed by medical science.

Yumnam Jakendra and his wife Niengboi Haokip were a heart broken couple after their first born daughter Y Mangalleima was killed in a militant ambush at Assam's Karbi Anglong district five years ago.

The twins and their grateful mother at the hospital

What fate had cruelly robbed them, medical science has stepped in to apply the needed balm, courtesy a bonny test tube twin girls, the first test tube baby in the State, that too twins.

Not surprisingly today they fit the bill of the happiest couple in the world.

Not only have the twins come as a blessing for their parents, but it is also a testimony of the expertise of the team of doctors behind the babies.

The two babies were born through the Invitro Fertilization Technology on Thursday at Suba Hospital and Assisted Reproductive Centre (SHARC).

A jubilant Jakendra (48), who is serving as a Professor in the Central Agricultural University (CAU) Imphal said that he is the happiest man in the world today.

"My late daughter Mangalleima has reincarnated.

I extend my sincere gratitude to the skilled doctors of SHARC for giving me my daughters".

The happy mother along with her twin daughters are being taken care by the doctors of the private hospital.

Recounting the horrific incident five years back, Jakendra said that he, his wife and daughter were passing Karbi Anglong in a bus for a tour to Sikkim when militants rained bullets on the vehicle in 2005."My (then) only daughter, who was sitting between me and my wife , was caught by the bullets and died on the spot .

Since then all our efforts to get another child proved futile, " Jakendra said while speaking to The Sangai Express.

"We had earlier attempted the invitro fertilization technology many times outside the State incurring a huge amount of money, but it is only now that it has turned out to be a success in SHARC, Imphal," he added.

SHARC doctors said the mother and her two daughters are fine and in good health.

" It was a collective effort by a team of doctors.

The babies are the true biological daughters of the couple (Jakendra and Niengboi)," said W Indevor, one of the doctors.

He said the incubator for fertilizing and developing the male's sperm and the female's eggs was installed in the hospital in March 2008 .

" For the first phase and for the first time in the State we conducted the test from a few couples of which three of them proved successful and the twin daughters of Jekendra and Niengboi are the first test tube babies born on the soil of Manipur ," he said.

With the success of this technology, a huge amount of money spent by parents outside the State to get babies will be a thing of the past, the doctor said while calculating that more than half of the whole amount spent outside the State hospitals (including travel and lodging expenses) will be saved.