Siamese twins saved after 10-hr surgery

Senior paediatric surgeons Dr Waingankar, cardiac surgeon Dr Shirish Borkar, two anaesthetists, Dr Alka Mandke and Dr Laxmi, perfusionist Dr Ravi Swami and senior nurse Glynice Ghagh were part of the team.

“Our initialimpression was that we would have to sacrifice one of the babies, as they shared vital organs. But luckily, they had separate intestines, and both of them could be saved,” Dr Nitu Mandke told Express Newsline.

He also explained that during foetal growth, the rib cage developed from the two sides of the chest and then formed the sternum. “In this case, the babies don’t have sternum. So on can see their heart beating through the chest. There wasn’t enough thin tissue to cover the torso. If we try to draw the skin together, it would compress the heart, so at present an artificial patch of skin has been used to cover the babies’ chests,” he said. “This will have to be removed in a week or so,” the doctor further stated.

According to Dr Maheshmeisher, “The instance of monozygous twins is one in a hundred thousand in the world, and one in six thousand in India. The importance of the surgery is that it was done within a period of 48 hours.”

The two babies now weigh 1.7 kg and 1.3 kg respectively, andare in the Intensive Care Unit at Hinduja. Once they are weaned off ventilators, they will be shifted to a paediatric hospital, though they are in very good condition at present. However, doctors say they are still not totally out of danger, given their low birth weight.