Family mourn death of baby Dwipayani

ID Nugroho and Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post/Surabaya

I Gusti Ayu Ketut Sriani sits alone in the corridor of Surabaya's Dr. Soetomo General Hospital. She mourns the loss of her eight- month-old baby girl, Dwipayani, who died on Thursday, five days after being surgically separated from her twin, Dwipayanti.

Head bowed, eyes to the floor, she is virtually unaware of the doctors, patients and nurses who pass her by. When The Jakarta Post approached her on Friday, she was unwilling to talk about her experience, "I am sorry, you'd better not ask me a question," she said.

Her reaction was understandable, a day earlier the 35-year-old woman had been informed of the death of her baby. She screamed and cried then, but has spoken little since.

Her husband, I Gusti Ngurah Eka Laya Kunta, has done all that he can to console her, though he too feels the pain of loss.

The couple are also anxious about Dwipayanti's condition, which the hospital says is deteriorating.

"Doctors are regulating her temperature so that she is not prone to infection," said Dr. Urip Murtedjo. He could give no guarantee as to Dwipayanti's recovery, but said the doctors looking after her were hoping for the best. Prior to the girls' separation surgery, the hospital had warned that it was a high-risk procedure.

"We have to take the risk anyway," said Teguh Sylvaranto, one of the hospital's doctors, before the surgery on Saturday and Sunday.

He said Dwipayani's heart defect, and the fact that she had not been getting enough oxygen, led to her demise. Though doctors had massaged her heart to stimulate it, the attempt to save her life failed.

Dwipayani's body was flown on Friday to Bali for burial.

Meanwhile, the team of doctors at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital are assessing their chances of separating conjoined twins, Anggie and Anjeli. Hospital director Slamet Yuwono is optimistic, however, that the twins will undergo surgery at the hospital. The twins, who turn one next week, had previously been treated at Jakarta's Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital but were discharged on Jan. 26.