Rare surgery underway to separate conjoined Tanzanian twins

A "rarest of rare" surgery to separate nine-month-old conjoined Tanzanian male twins commenced at Apollo Hospitals at Vanagaram near here today.
"The surgery commenced at around 9 am this morning and is continuing now. It is scheduled to get over late in the night or early in the morning," hospital sources told PTI.
This is a complex surgery as spines of both the babies' are conjoined, said Dr Venkat Sripathi, Senior Consultant paediatric Urologist at the Apollo Hospitals had earlier said.
It was in June this year, 20-year-old Grace of Tanzania first came to the hospital with her five-month old twin boys, looking to separate them, after she could not be helped in her home country.

The government of Tanzania has come forward to support the treatment, which is expected to be about Rs 30 to 40 lakh.
While conjoined twins are seen one in 2,00,000 deliveries, 60 per cent of them are still born and another 35 per cent die within a few days or month of birth due to various causes, Sripathi had said.
Pygopagus (conjoined in their buttocks) twins constitute 17 per cent of the conjoined twin population in the world and is common mostly in females, he said.