For the first time in her life, Nima and Dawa can sleep in separate beds. The 15-month-old Siamese twins from the Himalayan state of Bhutan have survived the operation well. As their doctors report, none of the girls need intensive medical treatment or artificial respiration.
"The surgery went smoothly and with no surprises," said chief surgeon Joe Crameri shortly after the operation to the British newspaper "Guardian". A team of 25 doctors and nurses at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, worked for about six hours to separate the sisters.
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Siamese twins Nima and Dawa with their mother before the operation.
The girls had grown together on the upper body and shared a liver. No matter how far their intestines had grown together, the doctors could not estimate exactly in advance. But according to Crameri, the separation of the bowels did not cause any problems. The biggest challenge was to reconstruct the children's abdominal wall.
Together with her mother and her pediatrician, Nima and Dawa had already traveled to Australia in October. In her homeland Bhutan, there was no way to have the complicated operation done. The cost of more than € 200,000 will be covered by the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located. The family itself could not afford the money.
Siamese twins from Bangladesh had already been successfully separated in the same hospital nine years ago. The operation lasted a total of 38 hours. The children named Trishna and Krishna live in Australia today.
As Siamese twins medicine refers to an aberration that develops in the womb at very early stages of development. Some babies only superficially grow together, others share organs or limbs.
The phenomenon is named after Chang and Eng Bunker, who were born in Siam in 1811 - largely today's Thailand - and remained together throughout their lives.