Conjoined twins face desperate fight for life as docs warn separation could kill them
The girls share a heart and liver but are not strong enough to survive a surgery to separate them yet
TWIN girls born conjoined at the abdomen are battling for their life in intensive care while doctors wait to see if they can perform life-saving surgery.
The girls share a heart and liver but are not yet strong enough to survive a surgery to separate them.
Mum Sumitra Dutta, 22, from a small village in Odisha, eastern India, was told by doctors only two days before she gave birth that she was carrying twins.
A team of three doctors delivered the babies via C-section on November 30 but were shocked to discover they were conjoined.
The girls, named Ganga and Jamuna, were taken to Shishu Bhawan Hospital, in Cuttack where they remain in intensive care.
Dr Pradeep Kumar Jena, a paediatric surgeon at the hospital, said: "The girls are joined at the abdomen and share a heart and liver but have separate kidneys, lungs, upper and lower limbs and genitals.
"We fear the heart is not functioning properly and there is a serious risk to their lives and an operation to separate them at the moment would be too risky."
Their father, Kishore Dutta, 24, a security guard, can't afford to keep them in the intensive care unit at the hospital and pleaded with government officials to pay for their treatment.
Health Minister Pratap Jena visited that family on December 2 to assure them the state would fund the twin's treatment.
Dr Pradeep added: "We will conduct more tests to understand the complexity of their case.
"They are currently doing relatively OK but survival chances are quite low as 90 per cent of these cases die soon after they are born.
"We have to keep them under observation for some time, only then we can we decided the next step.
"A team of doctors observing them will take a call on the operation after a couple of months.
MORE ON CONJOINED TWINS
"These months give their bodies a chance to grow.
"It's easier for doctors to do the surgery and easier for the twins to withstand it once they’re older.
"The months also allow time for many tests and other procedures that help in understanding more about the their bodies and prepare them for separation."
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