Siamese twins were successfully separated, but nothing prepared the doctors for what they did afterwards
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When a young Bhutanese woman in the himalayas gave birth to her twins, she was shocked to find that they were attached to each other.
The doctor who gave birth to the girls never saw siamese twins before and it was kept secret from the mother during pregnancy.
When they were born, the mother feared that they would not be accepted in the small community, while the doctors tried to find a way to give them a life-saving surgery that would separate them.
So, after a year of negotiations, they received exciting news - the girls, along with their mother, will fly to Melbourne, Australia, to undergo a separation surgery thanks to donations and fundraising.
It's a big day for these cuties!
Nima and Dawa, the conjoined twins from Bhutan, are set to undergo separation surgery at the @RCHMelbourne in about an hour.
We spoke with doctors recently: https://t.co/xHshDtjoF8 pic.twitter.com/bHr16FL1nD
— 3AW Melbourne (@3AW693) November 8, 2018
Siamese twins are very rare - the chance of giving birth to siamese twins is 1 in 200,000.
The sisters were connected in their torso, but what made the surgery even more challenging was that they shared one liver.
Sun and moon
The family arrived in Australia in October and the twins were hospitalized in a children's hospital.
The sisters, Nima and Dava, the names all the twins in Bhutan get and their meaning is sun and moon, had to undergo six hours of surgery and are now recovering well.
"They are very sweet, they don't move away from each other, and they sleep in the same bed", said hospital nurse Kelly Smith.
Even when the hospital staff tried to put them in seperate beds, the 16-month-old twins started crying.
Together again
"We tried to separate them a bit, but they stick together again and cross legs together, always", Kelly said.
The Bhutanese family has been brought to Australia thanks to the Children First, an Australian-based charity organisation.
The costs of the surgery were paid by the Australian government, with additional funds raised for staying and returning the family home.
The two teams that operated the girls said they were recovering well.
Cuddling up
But the most important thing is that they are happy. They like to curl up with each other and pull each other's hair.
Find out more about this amazing story in the video below.
Please share so others can see these beautiful girls as a tribute to the kindness of the organization and people who helped make it happen.
