Separated twin

Separated twin
dies after surgery

SURABAYA: Five days after being surgically separated from her
conjoined twin at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, baby Dwipayani
died on Thursday due to heart and lung failure.

Her sister, Dwipayanti, meanwhile, is still on life support.

One of the surgeons who operated on the twins for nine hours
on Saturday, Urip Murtedjo, said Dwipayani had a swollen heart
and lungs due to lack of oxygen.

"We tried massaging her heart to stimulate it, but it didn't
help," said Urip.

The conjoined twins were born eight months ago in a hospital
in Sanglah, Denpasar, Bali. 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 in the same hospital.

The hospital has so far successfully separated nine out of 18
pairs of conjoined twins, including Dwipayanti and Dwipayani.
However, the rate of survival for babies after the surgery is
unclear. There have been many cases where the separated twins
died a few months, or even few years, after the surgery due to
complications. -- Iman D. Nugroho