Bangladesh twins separated in marathon surgery

MELBOURNE – Australian doctors successfully separated joined-at-the-head Bangladeshi twins after more than 24 hours of surgery yesterday, describing the moment as ‘surreal’.

Two-year-old Trishna and Krishna, rescued from certain death in a Dhaka orphanage, were said to be ‘very well’ after leaving the operating theatre in induced comas and unattached for the first time.’The moment of separation was a rather surreal moment,’ Leo Donnan, chief of surgery at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, told reporters.’There was relief but I think everyone realised there was still a long way to go and that the girls have a very difficult time ahead of them.’Doctors worked through the night to prise apart the twins’ brain tissue at about 11h00 before reconstruction experts closed up their heads using bone and skin tissue, some 32 hours after they were wheeled into the operating room.’The girls have now come out of the theatre and they’re in intensive care,’ Donnan said.’Everything’s gone very well. They’re in great shape which is fantastic… they’re both in good condition and healthy. I think they’re better than we thought they’d be.’The girls will spend the next few days sedated, on ventilators and under close monitoring before being gradually woken up, Donnan said, adding they faced myriad possible dangers.’They’ve got a long process to go through and it will be many days before we know how well it’s gone,’ he said.In a related article, an aid worker tells of Bangladesh twins’ miraculous journey ‘There’s still considerable risks they’ve got to face, like any child who’s been through a major procedure. They’ve got a long recovery ahead of them – there are many unknowns after this sort of surgery.’Moira Kelly, the girls’ legal guardian who brought them to Australia from Bangladesh, was said to be overcome by the day’s dramatic developments.’I think she’s overwhelmed this has come to fruition,’ said Margaret Smith, her colleague at the Children First Foundation charity. ‘She’s just so grateful to the team here that they’ve been able to pull this off.’Some 16 specialists worked through the night, taking occasional food and rest breaks and listening to pop music in the operating theatre to stay alert, as the operation ran hours past its scheduled midnight finish.Donnan said there was quiet elation among the surgeons when they finally separated the girls after more than 24 hours of painstaking work.’The moment of separation was a rather surreal moment … Everyone has known these girls as one with their individual personalities, so to see them as separate human beings is a pretty amazing moment,’ he said.The girls were brought to Australia in November 2007 after aid workers became alarmed at their fading health in Dhaka, where doctors said they were powerless to help.But they were nursed back to health, developing a unique system of crawling on their backs and a love of Australian children’s band ‘The Wiggles’, as they underwent a series of preparatory operations.’These are once-in-a-lifetime operations that teams would do. For the hospital it’s a historic moment, for the girls it’s an even more historic moment,’ Donnan said. Separating conjoined twins is a notoriously difficult procedure, with attempts in Britain and Bangladesh both failing over the past year. – Nampa-AFP