A pair of conjoined twins was successfully separated at AIIMS, the doctors announced on Tuesday. The twins were joined at the liver which made the surgery complicated.
The girls, Shaily and Shilpa, were surgically separated at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), a few months ago when they were about six months old. The girls are now healthy and ready to move to their home. Doctors are hopeful that the girls would lead a normal life.
“They will have to come for checkups for some years and will have a normal life,” said Dr M. Bajpai, professor of paediatric surgery at AIIMS.
The twins were born in Aber, a village in Madhya Pradesh. Their parents Lal Bhai, a daily wage labourer, and Shashikala brought them to AIIMS last November, almost a month after they were born.
The surgery seemed impossible to the poor parents but MP from Satna, Ganesh Singh, came to their help and brought them to AIIMS.
It took the team of doctors about five months to plan the surgery, which took place May 29. According to the doctors, the girls shared vital organ, the liver.
“The girls were joined at chest, so our first concern was whether they shared the heart. Fortunately, they had separate hearts and other organs, but shared liver,” said Dr Bajpai.
The surgery took about eight hours, of which nearly four hours were taken to give anaesthesia. Then the liver was separated and was covered in local body tissues.
The chest and bone muscles were also separated and a reconstructive surgery was done.
Lal Bhai said, “We are feeling blessed that our children are healthy.”