Conjoined twins separated

A team of doctors prepares to operate on conjoined twins Dwipayanti and Dwipayani at the Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya.

After nine hours of complicated surgery, the team of doctors finally separated the twins early on Sunday morning. Both babies were reported fine after the operation, but the physicians would continue to closely monitor their progress to avoid possible complications.

Doctors at the hospital have so far successfully separated nine of 18 pairs of conjoined twins, including Dwipayanti and Dwipayani.

The conjoined twins were born eight months ago in a hospital in Sanglah, Denpasar. They were brought to the Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya and underwent preliminary surgery there in December last year, before final surgery on Saturday and Sunday.

Surgery to separate conjoined twins is among the most complicated in the medical field as the surgery as it is high risk and needs to involve dozens of doctors from various fields of expertise. (Iman D. Nugroho)