In most countries today, health ministers are seen as bureaucrats more interested in paperwork than medical miracles .

Not in Madagascar, where Mamy Lalatiana Andriamanarivo recently picked up a scalpel and separated conjoined Siamese twins in a medical first for the Indian Ocean island nation.

“ Surgery was performed at the Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona hospital on September 13 to separate Siamese twins joined at the abdomen and lower thorax , ” Jean Marie Rasamimanana, the deputy technical director at the hospital in the capital Antananarivo, told AFP on Tuesday .
“ The separation of the five -month -old twins , Mitia and Fitia , who weighed 13 kilograms ( 29 pounds) and were delivered by caesarian section , involved the separation of their liver , ribs and diaphragm, ” he said , adding that the pair were doing well following their operation .
The surgery was a medical first for Madagascar. A medical team from the country successfully separated Siamese twins in 2009 , but because of a lack of equipment in the island’ s hospitals , the surgery was performed in Paris .
Andriamanarivo , the minister and paediatric surgeon, reportedly praised the breakthrough and said it would save the island’ s medical system a small fortune as a comparable surgery would have cost 100,000 euros ( $120, 000) if performed overseas.