New Delhi: Three months after conjoined twins from Orissa underwent surgery at AIIMS, one of the separated twins, Kalia, has been put on ventilator after his condition deteriorated following a skin graft surgery performed earlier this week at AIIMS, sources said Thursday.
Kalia had undergone the surgery on his head. The twins were joined at the head. He is under constant observation of the surgeons. The other twin Jagga underwent skin grafting surgery of his head earlier and is recovering.
Doctors at the hospital had successfully conducted a 22-hour-long craniopagus surgery to separate Jagga and Kalia October 25 and 26. The twins, whose craniums were fused, were brought to AIIMS July 14 from Milipada village in Orissa’s Kandhamal district.
The first phase of surgery, where experts from Japan were also present, was done August 28. In it, a new bypass technique was used for the first time to separate the twins.
Earlier, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria said that discharging the two, Jagga and Kalia, might take eight to nine months, as reconstructive and re-plastic surgery for the skull of the two babies needs to be done.
“Though the top of the brain has been separated, the top has to be re-grafted with skin, so that may take months. It’s a long-drawn process and depends on how things go,” Guleria said.
PNN