Bangalore: The conjoined twins of a Nigerian
couple were successfully separated on Monday after an 11-hour long
surgery at a private hospital here, ending a prolonged wait
and bringing unbounded joy to the parents.
Eight-month-old `Peace` and `Patience` "are stable as of
now and are in the ICU. We have to monitor their progress," Dr
Ashley D`Cruz, General Pediatric surgeon at Narayana
Hrydayalaya said.
The twins born to Emmanuel and Comfort Adgube weighed 10
kgs and shared common liver and intestine when they were
brought to Narayana Hrydayalaya.
The surgery, which began at around 6.30 am, concluded at
5.30 pm and involved a team of 24 personnel, including 14
doctors, D`Cruz said.
"It was a very complex surgery as both twins shared two
thirds of the intestine." The surgery which took days
of meticulous planning and several rounds of discussions,
involved separating their bowels and allocating each a part of
the bowel, he said.
D`Cruz said their duodenum was fused and had to be
separated and reconstructed. The last part of the surgery
involved separation of the liver.
The toughest moment was separating the bile duct and
allocating part of it to each, he said, adding "we are happy
with the success, it was professionally a very challenging
task."
The mortality rate worldwide for such conjoined twins is
30 per cent, he said.
PTI