Bhutan’s first recorded conjoined twins are in Melbourne, Australia for separation surgery. The twin girls, born by caesarean- section on July 13 last year at Phuentshogling General Hospital, were joined at the thoracoabdominal region.
“The twins are now running 13 months of age and are healthy and beautiful looking girls,” states a news release from the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH).
It also says the Paediatric Surgeon of the National Referral Hospital, Dr Karma Sherub, after many discussions with Paediatric Surgeons from Singapore, Australia and India finalized the surgery to be done at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
The Children First Foundation in Melbourne will finance the travel and bear the entire cost for the surgery. The operation cost is estimated at around AUD 250,000.
The Children First Foundation facilitates surgery and provides pre-and-post surgical care for children with a range of congenital and acquired conditions, including orthopaedic, craniofacial, burns and plastics, renal and urology cases.
The foundation has begun a donation drive to raise money to cover the medical costs of the twins’ surgery.
The health ministry and JDWNRH have deputed a nurse as a medical escort to help the mother and the twins in their first travel abroad. They left for Australia on Monday.
Dr Karma Sherub will also travel to Melbourne when the twins are ready for the surgery.
An Australian newspaper, The Australian, writes the twins, who are connected at the lower chest and abdomen, will start a week of tests and scans at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital before their operation.
The doctors said they are confident the surgery would be successful.
A doctor at Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital, Joe Crameri, told CNN that the key areas that they are going to have to focus on are the bowel and the liver.
He said they are hoping that they don’t have to deal with any of the structures in their chests and the initial report suggests that they won’t have to.
