Dhaka: The Bangladeshi mother of conjoined
twins, separated last year in Australia, has flown to visit
her daughters for the first time since the complex surgery,
her husband said on Saturday.
Lovely Mallick, 23, and her jute mill worker husband
Kartik Chandra Mallick, 30, gave up the twins Trishna and
Krishna after their birth three years ago because there was no
way the poor couple could care for the sickly newborns.
Last November, the twins hit headlines after they were
separated by doctors in a marathon 32-hour operation in
Australia to divide their connected skulls, brains and blood
vessels and allow them to lead separate lives.
Lovely Mallick flew last week on a three-month visa to
Australia to see her daughters for the first time since the
operation, her husband said.
The children now are being looked after by their legal
guardian Moira Kelly who heads the Melbourne-based charity
Children First Foundation.
"My wife called me yesterday (Friday). She was
overwhelmed with joy to see our daughters talking and walking
for the first time," her husband Kartik Mallick said to a news agency.
"I also talked to Trishna and Krishna. I don`t know how I
can express my gratitude," he said.
Trishna and Krishna were brought to Melbourne in 2007
after they were discovered in the Dhaka orphanage by
Australian aid workers who realised they faced certain death
unless they received intensive medical care.
A Bangladeshi businessman funded Lovely Mallick`s trip to
Australia, her husband said, adding he felt saddened that
money did not permit him to accompany his wife.
The girls were born in December 2006 and six weeks later
the impoverished Mallicks placed them in the Dhaka orphanage.
Kartik Mallick said he did not know how long his wife
would be away.
Lovely Mallick has spoken of her delight that her
children survived the risky operation, which was hailed as a
miracle and a great medical success, but said she wanted them
to stay in Australia for a better life.
She said to a news agency last year she wanted to talk with her
daughters and to hold them in "my lap just for a moment".
PTI
