To grant a normal life to two twins conjoined at the top of their heads, a team of 30 doctors from India and various countries across the world has recently commenced the successful separation of their heads, even though there is still a considerable waiting period. The next day will confirm everything.
One of the two infants after the head separation surgery. Two-year-old boys Jaga and Kalia, originally named Honey and Singh, have been conjoined at the head since birth and face an 80% risk of death if not separated.
In March 2015, the mother of the two babies, Puspanjali Kanhar, a 25-year-old woman from the state of Orissa, India, was stunned when she saw her newly born twins conjoined at the head, something she didn't expect during her pregnancy. No hospital could resolve this issue, so the family had to take the two children home, despite promises from the Orissa state government to provide assistance.
On August 28 of this year, the first stage of the surgery was performed, where doctors created connecting blood vessels from the common blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain for the twins. Dr. Swapneshwar Gadnayak, who participated in this surgery, said, "These twins are called craniopagus twins because they have two separate brains but are joined at the head. Many such cases have been successfully separated, but if they share the same brain, it is very difficult to separate."
Mr. Bhuan Kanhar, the father of Jaga and Kalia, is a farmer earning only 1,600 rupees (about 700,000 VND) per month. He tried every possible way to treat his children, but he felt hopeless due to his poverty. "The family was so poor; I lost all hope and was forced to watch them suffer like that for two years," he said.
For two years, the family of the two children tried everything to cure them, but they felt helpless because they were too poor.
Mr. Kanhar and his wife have two other sons, aged 9 and 6, who are healthy and wish for all four children to live and play together.
And on October 26, this dream was initially realized when, at a hospital in Delhi, 30 doctors spent 16 hours separating the heads of Jaga and Kalia, marking the first surgery of this type in India.
During the operation, it was discovered that the two babies shared brain tissue and blood vessels, an extremely rare condition occurring in about 1 in about 3 million births.
The activities of the two children were very challenging. Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told the press, "The next 18 days will determine the success of the surgery." A.K. Mahapatra, a doctor who participated in the operation, said, "Both babies had other health problems. While Jaga has a heart disease, Kalia has kidney disease. Initially, Jaga was stronger, but now he is getting weaker, and Kalia is getting better."
Doctors mentioned that the most significant challenge after separating the babies' heads was "providing enough skin to cover both heads because the separation surgery left large gaps on their heads." "If they can do it themselves, the next step is to reconstruct their skulls," said Manish Singhal, a plastic surgery expert. [Impermanence] (according to BBC, Daily Mail)
