Hope For Telangana’s Conjoined Twins Veena And Vani?

Hyderabad: This story gives a flicker of hope to conjoined twins Veena and Vani - the 14-year-old twins born in Nalgonda district of Telangana have been fused since birth.

In one of the most intricate surgeries performed on conjoined twins a 30-strong team at a children’s hospital in Pennsylvania successfully separated two girls fused together at the head. The operation performed on June 7 was all the more complicated given that the twins were only 10 months old. Erin and Abby Delaney’s shared blood vessels and the protective membrane around their brains had to be carefully teased apart during the 11-hour surgery. The surgeons then split into two groups to perform reconstruction on each girl. Surgery equipment such as monitors and tape was marked with green or purple tape to differentiate each girl.

Erin and Abby were delivered prematurely by Caesarean section last July. Their parents sought specialist pre-natal care after they found out they were expecting conjoined twins 11 weeks into mother Heather’s pregnancy. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia said its surgeons had separated conjoined twins 23 times over the past 60 years, but this was the first time children joined by the top of their heads had been involved.

It is this statement from the hospital authorities that raises hopes that perhaps Veena and Vani - the most widely written conjoined twins in the country - can one day hope to lead independent lives.