CUTTACK: With no improvement in the health condition of Nayagarh’s conjoined twin sisters Ganga-Jamuna, treating doctors at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics (SVPPGIP) are unable to decided about their surgery.Addressing media persons here on Saturday, Sishu Bhawan Superintendent Prof Saroj Satapathy said no improvement has been noticed in their health. The doctors will think about their surgery or shifting them elsewhere only after some improvement in their health condition is observed, he said.
Beside sharing a common heart and liver, the conjoined twins also have a defective heart with abnormal blood vessels and Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), which requires a very long and complex surgery, Prof Satapathy said. Surgery is impossible at this stage, he added.“The conjoined twins are too young and way under-weight to bear the anaesthesia required for the surgery,” Prof Satapathy said, adding that at least 6 to 7 months more are required when their weight would reach around 9 kg. Then can bear the marathon surgery.
They girls are under close observation of the doctors as their condition is unstable with low oxygen saturation.The conjoined sisters were born to Kishore and Sumitra Dutta of Khalipatana under Sarankula police limits in a private nursing home at Nayagarh on December 1. They were referred to Sishu Bhawan as they did not have good birth condition. Authorities of Sishu Bhawan on the next day had formed a special team of 12 doctors headed by Dr PK Jena, HoD, Paediatric Surgery Department, to provide treatment to the newborn twins after Health Minister visited them at the hospital and announced free treatment.