NEW DELHI, Oct 7: The US neurosurgeon who hopes to separate two Indian girls who are joined at the head is also willing to operate on a second set of Siamese twins from southern India, a hospital official said on Friday.
“We heard about them through the media and we would want to collaborate with the team down there,” said Anupam Sibal, medical director of New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital.
Two days after the Apollo announced plans Tuesday to go ahead with an attempt to separate twins Sabah and Farah Shakeel if their parents consent, the Times of India reported another case in Andhra Pradesh state.
Like the 10-year-old Shakeels, Veena and Vani, aged two, are joined at the head and share a major blood drainage vessel in the brain.
Dr Benjamin Carson, head of paediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre in Baltimore, Maryland, has agreed to operate on Sabah and Farah.
The Apollo hospital has been in touch with the hospital in Andhra Pradesh that is caring for twins Veena and Vani.
The Shakeels, Muslims from Bihar state, are to make the difficult decision on the operation during Ramazan.
Veena and Vani, who have no benefactor, are in the care of the Government General Hospital in Guntur.—AFP
