INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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Bhutanese twins Nima and Dawa were joined at the torso
Surgeons in
Australia have successfully separated conjoined twins from Bhutan and say they stand a good chance of a full recovery.The 15-month-old
girls, Nima and Dawa Pelden, had been joined at the torso and shared a liver.Lead surgeon Dr Joe Crameri told reporters the girls had coped
"very well" with the six-hour operation
Dr Crameri said it was a "joy" to inform their mother, Bhumchu Zangmo, that the surgery had been a success."There's nothing better in any
operation to be able to go to the parents and say we have been able to take care of your child," he said
Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Doctors said the surgery was not as complicated as they had feared
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copyrightAFPImage caption
One image showed one of the twins being lifted away after the separation
Nima
and Dawa had grown facing each other, and could not sit down together
They could stand but only at the same time.The twins were brought to Melbourne with their mother last month, but doctors had delayed the
surgery until Friday, to improve the girls' nutrition needs
About 18 specialists in two teams, one for each girl, took part in the procedure at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital
Doctors successfully divided the twins' liver
The girls were found not to share a bowel - something surgeons had said was an "unknown" before the operation."We always felt confident that
we could achieve this," Dr Crameri said
"But we just did not know what we would find."Image copyrightEPAImage caption
The girls are in Australia with their
mother, Bhumchu Zangmo
But he said there "weren't any things inside the girls' tummies that we weren't really prepared
for"."There will be challenges over the next 24 to 48 hours as with any surgery, and we feel quietly confident that we will have a good
result," he said.Conjoined twins are very rare - it is thought one in every 200,000 births - and around 40-60% of these births are delivered
Only a few separations are carried out around the world each year.The Bhutanese family was brought to Australia by Children First
Foundation, an Australian-based charity
Elizabeth Lodge, from the charity, said Ms Zangmo had felt "a little bit scared", but had shown "extraordinary calmness" before the
The charity said the girls were breathing on their own
Himalayan kingdom, one of the world's poorest nations, after the twins have recovered.In 2009, the same hospital performed a successful
operation to separate Bangladeshi conjoined twins.The girls, Trishna and Krishna, who were joined at the head, underwent a life-saving
