“I am a happy man”: how, 17 years after the operation, one of the divided Siamese twins Gita Rezakhanova lives

Siamese twins Gita and Zita Rezakhanova were born in 1991 in the village of Dzhany-Jer in northern Kyrgyzstan. The girls had three legs for two and a common pelvis. It was impossible to carry out the operation to separate the sisters in Kyrgyzstan, and the parents of the girls turned to Russian doctors for help. Surgeons of the capital's Central Children's Clinical Hospital named after Filatov agreed to help the twins. In March 2003, they performed an operation to separate the twins, which became a real sensation.

Zita and Gita Rezakhanov, the first successfully separated Siamese twins with common unpaired internal organs, both of which managed to save their lives, were watched by the whole country. Journalists fought for new details of the sisters' life after the operation, and the girls themselves regularly flashed on the country's television screens - came to talk shows, willingly gave interviews, trying to live a normal life.

Years later, the hype around the Rezakhanovs subsided, and in 2015, Zita, whose body was weaker than her sister's, died. Gita and the whole family survived the tragedy heavily, but did not give up - in memory of her sister, Gita learned the Koran and became a teacher, and their mother Zumriyat Rezakhanova opened a center for helping children with disabilities.

“If you want peace, read the Quran”

Now the Rezakhanovs live in the village of West, 40 km from the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in a two-story white brick house. On the ground floor are Gita's parents, her brother and wife, and their four children. The Gita occupies a modest little room on the second floor, in which her twin sister once lived.

The room has light blue walls, a bed, a sofa, a wardrobe and a shelf with books on religious subjects. All the free time the Gita devotes to studying the Holy Scriptures. In 2019, she graduated from the Islamic College in Osh and received the title of Hafiz - the guardian of the Koran.

Gita recalls how her mother gave her and her sister the book “Don't Be Sad” - then the sisters just finished school and did not know how to live on.

“When we had a severe depression, mom bought us this book. First, we reluctantly read it, and then Zitka accidentally opened the page, and it was written there: “If you want peace, read the Qur'an, if you want love, read the Qur'an”. These words hooked us, and we told mom that we want to study, ”says RT Gita.

The twins arrived at the madrasah. But Zita studied for only six months, due to poor health, she was forced to quit classes. Gita did not want to continue her studies alone and also returned home. In 2015, at the age of 24, Zita died.

“After the death of Zita, my mother told me that I should go to study for Zita, because Zita was very upset when I refused to study. This is our dream, ”explains the Gita.

In college, the girl studied for four years, and in the fifth she began to work as a teacher. However, in the fall of 2019, Gita was given a terrible diagnosis: colon cancer. In connection with the disease, she switched to home schooling and gives distance learning lessons.

“I worked for two months, and then I found out about my illness. I miss work because I don’t like to sit still, I am alive. I like to move, I like to work with others, ”says the Gita.

“Zita is an example for all people”

Five years after the death of Zita, the Rezakhanovs reverently revere her memory. Gita points to two candies on a bookshelf: “These are Zitin candies. The last time she went down from the second floor, she said that she wanted them, and asked to be brought to her. It was literally three days before death. They both lay here and lie. You see these sweets and always remember this moment, and you think that even she, the poor, could not eat, but as she dreamed. She loved to have a tasty meal with us, she had a sweet tooth. To throw them out, our hand does not rise. It’s like a piece of her. ”

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The twin sister is buried in an old rural cemetery right at the entrance to the village of Zapadnoye. Every week, a family visits Zita’s grave. During these visits, the Gita reads her sister's favorite prayers.

“Recently I cried and asked my mother, I’ll get better, she told me that Zita would be ashamed of me now, and I’m ashamed. What kind of pain Zita suffered was simply unbearable, and my pain compared to her pain is not pain. Mom always puts it to me as an example. And Zita is really an example not only for me, but for all people, ”Gita explains.

Center for Special Children

In memory of her daughter, in 2016, Zumriyat Rezakhanova opened the “Right to a Better Life” center for children with disabilities in the village of Dzhany-Jer. The center accepts children with cerebral palsy, autism and other ailments from all over the district.

“When Zita left, I did not know what to do with my life. Lying in cardiology, crushed by everything that happened, by the death of a child, I realized that I just could not die. I decided that God did not give this experience to me in vain, and what I experienced, what I learned, I had to share with other parents, ”Zumriyat explains.

“For long days in the hospital, we talked about opening an orphanage, adopting many children and being parents for them, because girls themselves cannot give birth. It was Zita’s big dream - to become a mother to many children, ”the woman admits.

As a result, Rezakhanova wrote a project to the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of Kyrgyzstan, where he was approved. The center is located in the old culture house - there is no heating and repair, but Rezakhanova is actively trying to find investors in order to make the room comfortable for children to stay there. She has already managed to find money for a computer class, an exercise therapy room, and in the summer a sports ground will be built in the courtyard of the center.

A total of about 50 children attend the center, where they are taught computer literacy, drawing, singing, playing chess, and conduct classes with a psychologist. All services are provided to children for free.

“There is nothing of the kind here. This is the only such center. If we had transport, some sort of minivan or minibus, we would bring the children ourselves and take them home. Parents would have the opportunity to work so that they could give a decent life to this child. This year our project is more focused on teenage children, because there is nothing for them either, ”Rezakhanova explains. “For me, this is the center where my daughter lives, I opened it in memory of her.”

The Rezakhanovs also have plans to open an orphanage for orphans.

“A disabled person is not an appearance; he is disabled in his head”

Despite his illness, the Gita is also going to work in the center. The girl plans to teach English, has already compiled a curriculum for elementary school and is waiting for her to start working with children.

According to Gita, she is afraid that her plans may upset her illness. She will have to undergo several chemotherapy courses. She notes that alone she would never be able to fight her ailments.

“My thoughts, my actions are all mom. It happened when we despaired, my mother asked us: “What are you crying for?” We answered: “Mom, we have no legs,” and she: “And what, that there is no leg? But there is a head. A disabled person is not an appearance; he is disabled in his head. ” Mom never made us disabled. If mother felt sorry for us, we would be different, ”says Gita.

According to her, the main happiness in her life is the family, and she would not have exchanged her for health if she had a choice.

“If they asked me what I would like - health or what. I would choose a family. I would live it all again for such a family, for the sake of this love. For the sake of Zita, that I had such a half. Because people are looking for happiness, wealth, but that will not make them happy. I am a happy person, ”the girl admits.