By IANS
Raipur : Amid prayers by hundreds of people, a team of doctors here Tuesday successfully separated 10-month-old twins who were joined at the stomach and liver since birth.
"Normally the twins who share the stomach and lever but have separate hearts and urinary organs stand less than 30 percent chance of survival in a separation surgery, but the complicated five-hour surgery here has created history," a buoyant Ashok Sharma, head of the surgery department at the Ambedkar Government Hospital, told reporters.
Sharma, who led the operation, said that both male kids were in good health after the operation but were put under medical observation for 72 hours as a precautionary measure.
The kids – named Ram and Lakshman by their father Ramprasad and mother Premvati – were born on July 16, 2006 in Bilaspur district.
As they were conjoined, the parents took them to a government hospital in Bilaspur but doctors there refused to take up the case, saying they would not survive for long as they share most of the sensitive organs.
The dejected parents then took them to the Ambedkar Government Hospital, where doctors kept them in a separate ward for 10 months and operated upon them only when they had attained the necessary growth and health.
"I still can't believe the doctors have created the miracle… I have no words in appreciation of the doctors who gave a new life to my kids," Ramprasad, a labourer, told reporters.
"I spent the whole day in a temple seeking rebirth of my kids and the almighty did not let me down," he added.
Talking to reporters outside the operation ward, a nervous Premawati added: "My heart is throbbing fast, it's really a miracle that has happened here today. It will take months for me to believe my twins have been detached from each other."
The parents' feelings were also shared by many in this Chhattisgarh capital who had prayed at temples seeking long life for the kids. The cost of the rare operation was born by the hospital management.