Australian surgeons separate conjoined twins

Australian surgeons yesterday successfully separated conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna after more than 27 hours of surgery. Plastic surgeons have now moved in to work on the girls, aged two years and 11 months.

A team of 16 surgeons have been working to separate the pair at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital since Monday morning. The hospital’s head of surgery Leo Donnan praised his doctors, who he said had worked seamlessly to separate the girls.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime operation that teams would do,” Donnan told reporters outside the hospital.

Krishna and Trishna will remain in the hospital’s intensive care unit for “a number of days”, he said. “And then they’ll be slowly woken up.”

Supporters remain optimistic the toddlers will pull through the risky procedure unharmed. Xinhua