HYDERABAD,Jan25, 2012: Fate couldn’t have dealt a more severe blow to these girls. Veena and Vani are nine-year-old twins but cannot look at each other’s face.The reason — they are conjoined at the head, the top of one fused into the back of the other in such a way that they cannot face each other. And to top it all, they have been virtually abandoned by their parents, left to fend for themselves and share their misery.
What is heart-wrenching is that both Veena and Vani want to be like any other kid of their age, play in the open ground, go to school and savour small pleasures in life. But the world of the Siamese twins is confined to their room in Niloufer Children’s hospital in Hyderabad and the doctors and nurses, who attend to them round the clock, have been their only companions. Bubbly and always smiling, the twins are otherwise like any other children, except for the “craniopagus” (conjoined at the head) condition. They are healthy with normal functioning of the brain. But, In the absence of normal upbringing and home environment, the twins now face a bleak and uncertain future. Being poor farm labourers, their parents had abandoned them soon after their birth and left them to the care of the government-run hospital. Now, the hospital authorities want the government to take care of them since their continued stay in the claustrophobic hospital environment could affect their growth. The surgery to separate them is going to be highly complicated and risky, involving huge costs. Says Murali, their father who is a casual labourer from the neighbouring Warangal district: “We are too poor to take care of them in such a condition. I have two more daughters to take care of.” “We have sought financial help and a job from the government. Unless the government helps us, it will be impossible for us to meet the medical expenses of the twins if we take them home,” he said. “Since their birth, they have been living in hospitals and have got used to the environment,” says the twin’s mother Naga Laskhmi, also a daily wage-earner. While giving their consent for separation surgery, the parents, however, expressed their helplessness to take the twins home. The plight of the twins has raised a slew of ethical questions. Can parents abandon their children, citing their poor financial condition? “The condition of the twins is heart-wrenching. It is the responsibility of the state to take care of their future needs,” said V Sandhya, an NGO leader working in the area of women’s welfare. “Since the parents are unwilling to take their children home, we have written to the government about the case and are exploring the options. One of them could be to put them in Shishu Vihar (state-run Children’s Home). We are not forcing the twins to leave the hospital,” Superintendant of Niloufer Hospital K Ramesh Reddy said. Several national and international experts were earlier consulted to explore surgery options but it could not be taken up because of the huge risk involved. A renowned neurosurgeon from Singapore Dr Keith Goh, who has the experience of operating on four pairs of craniopagus conjoined twins, had offered to perform the surgery on Veena and Vani a few years ago. But the parents had then refused to give consent and insisted on a guaranteed success which is not possible in such cases. The issue of rehabilitating the twins has become a big challenge for the hospital authorities.
“The twins need a normal environment for a healthy psychological development. They need to see the outside world and grow up normally. This stage is particularly crucial because they are about to enter adolescence,” Head of the Paediatric Surgery Department Dr A Narendra Kumar said.
What is heart-wrenching is that both Veena and Vani want to be like any other kid of their age, play in the open ground, go to school and savour small pleasures in life. But the world of the Siamese twins is confined to their room in Niloufer Children’s hospital in Hyderabad and the doctors and nurses, who attend to them round the clock, have been their only companions. Bubbly and always smiling, the twins are otherwise like any other children, except for the “craniopagus” (conjoined at the head) condition. They are healthy with normal functioning of the brain. But, In the absence of normal upbringing and home environment, the twins now face a bleak and uncertain future. Being poor farm labourers, their parents had abandoned them soon after their birth and left them to the care of the government-run hospital. Now, the hospital authorities want the government to take care of them since their continued stay in the claustrophobic hospital environment could affect their growth. The surgery to separate them is going to be highly complicated and risky, involving huge costs. Says Murali, their father who is a casual labourer from the neighbouring Warangal district: “We are too poor to take care of them in such a condition. I have two more daughters to take care of.” “We have sought financial help and a job from the government. Unless the government helps us, it will be impossible for us to meet the medical expenses of the twins if we take them home,” he said. “Since their birth, they have been living in hospitals and have got used to the environment,” says the twin’s mother Naga Laskhmi, also a daily wage-earner. While giving their consent for separation surgery, the parents, however, expressed their helplessness to take the twins home. The plight of the twins has raised a slew of ethical questions. Can parents abandon their children, citing their poor financial condition? “The condition of the twins is heart-wrenching. It is the responsibility of the state to take care of their future needs,” said V Sandhya, an NGO leader working in the area of women’s welfare. “Since the parents are unwilling to take their children home, we have written to the government about the case and are exploring the options. One of them could be to put them in Shishu Vihar (state-run Children’s Home). We are not forcing the twins to leave the hospital,” Superintendant of Niloufer Hospital K Ramesh Reddy said. Several national and international experts were earlier consulted to explore surgery options but it could not be taken up because of the huge risk involved. A renowned neurosurgeon from Singapore Dr Keith Goh, who has the experience of operating on four pairs of craniopagus conjoined twins, had offered to perform the surgery on Veena and Vani a few years ago. But the parents had then refused to give consent and insisted on a guaranteed success which is not possible in such cases. The issue of rehabilitating the twins has become a big challenge for the hospital authorities.
“The twins need a normal environment for a healthy psychological development. They need to see the outside world and grow up normally. This stage is particularly crucial because they are about to enter adolescence,” Head of the Paediatric Surgery Department Dr A Narendra Kumar said.