The Telangana Government was mulling the idea to have 12-year-old conjoined twins — Veena and Vani — surgically separated at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and the AIIMS authorities have also replied favourably to it.
The State Government came up with the idea after a team of British doctors gave an estimate that the surgery to separate the conjoined twins in a london hospital will cost Rs10 crore.
After receiving the communication from British team last month, the State Government approached the AIIMS to seek a second opinion whether the institute was equipped to undertake such a complicated procedure if the British doctors were persuaded to perform the surgery in New Delhi rather than london.
Sources said that the AIIMS has expressed its willingness to help in this operation by the British experts. However, the estimated cost of such a procedure at AIIMS was not clear.
Dr David James Dunaway and Dr Noorul Owais from Great Ormond Street hospital had visited Hyderabad in February last and after examining the conjoined twins and studying various test reports ruled that surgically separating them was possible but only in london as such facilities were not available in India.
They also held discussions with the doctors of Niloufer Children’s hospital in Hyderabad where two girls were living ever since they were abandoned by their poor parents soon after their birth. The parents had refused to take them home on the ground that they don’t have means to look after the girls.
The British team concluded that the case of Veena and Vani was type II craniophagus conjoined in which one head was joined at the top of others. It said that it will take at least five surgeries over a period of one year to separate them.