Australian doctors to evaluate Bhutanese conjoined twins before operation

A pair of Bhutanese twins who were born 14 months ago conjoined at the chest will be evaluated on Thursday at a hospital in Australia before undergoing separation surgery.

"We need to just double check everything is alright generally," anesthesiologist Ian McKenzie, a member of the specialist medical team at the Royal Children's Hospital here where the complicated procedure will take place, told the media.

The twins Nima and Dawa Pelden, who arrived in Australia on Tuesday, will undergo high-quality image scans to determine whether they are ready for the planned operation, reports Efe news.

"There's a whole lot of things they might have got in Bhutan they wouldn't get in Australia, and we need to just have our guard up that they haven't got a surprise illness we haven't thought of, that might not be very common here," McKenzie said.

Based on the results of the analysis, doctors will schedule the operation, which could be carried out next week and would last about eight hours.

Hospital head paediatric surgeon Joe Crameri said that the twins seem to be fine because they are active and interacting with each other.

The twins were born on July 13, 2017, via a C-section delivery in Bhutan. They are the first known conjoined twins in their country.

--IANS

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