Separated twins girls may have babies, doctors says

Separated twins girls may have babies, doctors says

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Indonesian twin girls who were conjoined at the abdomen and hip
can look to a future as mothers after they were successfully
separated in a 10-hour operation in Singapore, their doctors said
on Tuesday.

"They will be sexually active... they should be able to have
babies," surgeon Tan Kai Chah told reporters three days after the
15-month-old girls, Angeli and Anggi, were separated by an
international team of 15 doctors.

Tan said each of the twins, who like many Indonesians go by
one name, now have one leg, with the muscle and skin from a
middle leg they had shared but could not be saved grafted to
cover their abdomens.

"I think all of us are very confident given the X-ray findings
that these are going to be weightbearing legs and they will be
able to hop around pretty fast," Tan said.

The operation was the third successful separation of conjoined
twins in Singapore since 2001, following similar procedures on
one-year-old Nepalese babies joined at the head and South Korean
infants fused at the spine.

However an unprecedented operation on a pair of 29-year-old
twins from Iran, which attracted global attention, ended
tragically when both women -- Ladan and Laleh Bijani -- died
following a 52-hour operation in July 2003.

The latest separation attempt had also been considered a
highly risky affair, particularly for Angeli, who has a hole in
her heart.

Doctors said Angeli and Anggi remained in intensive care at
the private Gleneagles Hospital on Tuesday, although they were
breathing on their own and there were no signs yet of any
infections or other complications.

"Both children actually came out very well, very stable," one
of two consultant pediatricians who is overseeing the girls'
post-operative recovery phase, Kenny Ee, told the press
conference.

"All their vital signs are stable and all their vital
functions of their organs seems stable... so far we've been
lucky."

Tan said both girls were expected to remain at the hospital
for another six weeks before returning to Indonesia.

The girls, born into poverty in the Indonesian city of Medan,
were brought to Singapore in February after an Indonesian
businessman agreed to pay the medical fees of S$450,000
(US$273,000).

The girls' father, Subari, a snack vendor, thanked the
64-year-old businessman, Olo Panggabean, but said he was worried
about how he would fund his daughters' medical costs for the rest
of their lives.

"I think now my first concern is... the medical expenses to
look after the kids, which is quite high," Subari told reporters
at the hospital.