19-hour surgery separates conjoined twins
Conjoined twins who went through a marathon 19hour operation to separate their fused heads are in critical condition.
A team of 30 specialists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi started the painstaking operation on morning at 9:00 a.m. and did not finish until 3:00 a.m. of next day, metro.co.uk wrote.
Jaga and Kalia, who are 28-months-old, are now on a ventilator and have been classed as critical.
The pair have consistently beaten the odds by surviving, despite sharing blood vessels and brain tissue, a condition which normally kills 50 percent of babies within 24 hours.
Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Randeep Guleria said: “The next 18 days would be extremely critical to ascertain the success of the surgery.”
Girija Rath, professor of neuroanesthesia at AIIMS, told the Hindustan Times: “Both the babies are stable and safely out of anesthesia.
“There has been no deterioration in their condition. However, we have to look out for progress.”
Their recovery is expected to take months but the challenge will be whether if the twins can learn to live without each other.
Rath said: “In major neurosurgeries like this one, the physiology of the brain changes drastically. The brains of the twins were dependent on each other and now that they have been separated, they would have to learn to live with it.”
The twins, from Odisha (Orissa State), are under constant observation and are being monitored by a team of experts.
The pair are also being given blood transfusions continuously.
This week’s operation was the second part of the operation, on August 28 doctors created venous bypass to separate the veins shared by the babies.
The twins were admitted to hospital on July 13.