July 5, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4,1424

SINGAPORE: Iranian twins fused at the heads participated in prayers at the Singapore home of their new friends in a last get-together outside the hospital before unprecedented separation surgery on Sunday.

“The prayer reading from the Holy Quran was very calming,” said Bahar Niko, a member of the Iranian community who has become the closest to Ladan and Laleh Bijani, set to become the first conjoined adults to undergo the risky operation.

While Niko, 24, and her parents have taken the 29-year-old sisters on excursions to restaurants and shopping centres since they arrived in Singapore last November, joining together in prayers on Thursday night was deemed particularly appropriate while final preparations were under way at Raffles Hospital.

“They are becoming a little nervous,” Niko said. “They really understand everything about the operation.”

Although the dangers of death or severe disabilities have been explained thoroughly by Dr Keith Goh, the neurosurgeon leading the team of international experts, Niko said Laleh and Ladan “think about the good things”, and the prospect of finally leading separate lives.

After nearly three decades of sacrifices to accommodate each other, the women say they can no longer bear to continue conjoined.

Although both are law graduates from Tehran University, Laleh wants to become a journalist.

Ladan enjoys cooking, watching the news and studying computer science. Laleh likes puzzles, computer games and animals.

They described themselves as “opposites”.

In a marathon 48-hour operation that may extend to four days, the surgeons plan to separate the shared cranial cavity, divide the major vein that drains blood from the brain and close the opened cavities with grafted muscle and skin.

Goh is leading the 25-member operating team from Singapore, the United States, Japan, Nepal, France and Switzerland.

“They don’t think about the bad things,” said Niko, who teaches English at an international school. They “are leaving it to God and the doctors”.

The sisters were turned away five years ago by German doctors who feared one or both would die.

Their physicians in Singapore say they believe in the success of the operation, since the twins have anatomically intact and individual brains, and significant medical progress has been made in the last few years in separation surgery.

The Bijanis read about the success of the Singapore team in separating 10-month-old Nepalese twins, also joined at the head, in April 2001.

While Niko said friends of the twins are also coming from Iran, she described her relationship with them that blossomed in Singapore as unlike any other.

“I’ve never had friends like them,” she explained.

In the run-up to the surgery, donors are streaming into the National Blood Centre in response to the hospital’s appeal as huge blood loss is expected during the operation.

The decision to proceed with the surgery has sparked controversy in international medical circles, with many specialists opposed to a move that might lead to the death of one, or both, of the otherwise healthy women.

Goh said earlier his views changed the more time he spent with the twins.

“Can you imagine 29 years of putting up with a life where everything is so inextricably linked to the other person, where you’re a dependent on the other person, where your thoughts even are no secret ... where you have to sacrifice so much?”—dpa