Surgical separation considered for twins

Surgical separation considered for twins

SURABAYA: Doctors here are considering at length the
possibility of separating a pair of twins joined at the chest and
stomach.

They say the twins, who were born on Saturday to a poor family
in the East Java capital of Surabaya, share two legs, one sex
organ and have no anus.

But doctors are weighing up the dangers of surgery to separate
them.

"It is very dangerous to operate on them. The most important
thing at the moment is that the babies survive," Dr. Oerip
Moetedjo, a spokesman from Dr. Soetomo Hospital, was quoted as
saying by Antara on Sunday.
"They were born prematurely and their irregularities are very
rare. It is extremely difficult (to separate them)."

The twins, whose sex was not given, are two of three babies
born on Saturday.

The other baby was born without any complications.

On Thursday a two-week-old pair of conjoined twin boys died of
complications six weeks ahead of a planned separation surgery in
Bandung, West Java. The twins were born with fused lower bodies.
--AFP