Siamese twin surgery fails

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: Surgery to separate Siamese twins performed by the East Lombok Dr. Soejono Selong General Hospital had been unsuccessful and the babies had died, the hospital director Dr. Muchdar confirmed on Tuesday.

"The team of surgeons led by Dr. Deni Jayapurnomo tried its best to separate the one-week-old male babies, but failed," Muchdar said.

He said the twins had been born with serious defects. They had one leg each, and only partially formed arms and heads.

The babies' mother is a resident of the village of Kopang, Central Lombok. It was Suela community health center in East Lombok that designated Dr. Soejono Selong Hospital to undertake the twins' treatment.

Efforts to separate the twins had attracted the attention of East Timor Regent H. Syahdan. Syahdan and several local officials visited the babies before the surgery started on Tuesday morning. --Antara