Dattatreya promises help to conjoined twins

Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya today promised help to conjoined twins, Veena and Vani, who have been living in a state-run hospital here for the last 12 years.
The Union Minister of State for Labour (independent charge) visited the twins at the government-run Niloufer hospital.
He told reporters that provision of a house, employment to their parents and education to them is being considered by the Centre as well.
The Telangana government is already looking into the matter.
The parents of the conjoined twins last week urged the Telangana government to facilitate an operation to separate the girls, though medical experts have opined that the surgery could be risky.

"Since it was God who gave such a birth to them, we pray to the government (and also God) to perform an operation on Veena and Vani, either in London, Australia or America, to separate them and then hand them over to us," the children's parents M Murali and Nagalakshmi said in a letter to Superintendent of the Niloufer hospital.

Veena and Vani, who were born in 2003 with their heads conjoined, have been staying in the hospital since then under the care of medical staff.
The state-run hospital at Red Hills here has become their home all these years as they grew up there.

The parents had said they cannot take care of the children as they are poor and work as daily wage labourers.
The hospital authorities said they would communicate the matter to the state government.
International experts, including from Britain and Singapore, examined the rare conjoined twins ondifferent occasions in last several years to perform the complex surgery to separate them.
The surgery reportedly involves massive costs and some estimates put the amount at about Rs 10 crore.
However, no attempt to perform the operation has been successful and the children continue to live in the Niloufer hospital.
Recently, doctors from AIIMS assessed the situation and reportedly opined that the surgery would be risky.