Conjoined twins Luv and Prince, with their parents, at Wadia Hospital in central Mumbai. Ganesh Shirsekar
Six weeks after they were separated in a surgery, conjoined twins Luv and Prince are scheduled to get discharged from Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital on Tuesday. The twins shared a urinary bladder, liver, and intestine. They were born facing each other, joined by the abdomen and hip region. In a surgery that lasted 12 hours in December, the now 16-month-old boys were separated by 30 doctors, organ by organ. The twins remained in the hospital under observation for six more weeks. According to doctors, they were on ventilator support for a week and in the intensive care unit for three weeks. They are now able to stand. Doctors are now preparing for their discharge, planned for Tuesday.
“Wound management was an ordeal as the abdomen was kept open, covered only by mesh. They underwent multiple dressings under anesthesia… and recovered miraculously without any complication,” a doctor, who treated the twins, said. They will require another surgery, after a year, for bone reconstruction, and a procedure for abdominal closure.
The twins’ Ghatkopar-based parents found out about their conjoined babies in the 24th week of pregnancy. They decided to proceed with delivery in Wadia Hospital. “We are extremely happy to see our babies stand… It is difficult to explain the happiness we feel, seeing both of them normal and healthy,” said Sagar Zalte, the twins’ father.