This handout photograph taken on January 5, 2019 and received on August 2 from the Action for Defenceless People Foundation (ADPF) shows conjoined Bangladeshi twins Rabeya and Rukaya during their visit to Budapest, in preparation for their final separation surgery in Dhaka.Image Credit: AFP
Sat 03 August 2019:
Surgeons from Budapest-based medical aid charity and local doctors performed the surgery
Dhaka: A team of Hungarian surgeons on Friday successfully separated a pair of conjoined Bangladeshi twins who were joined at the skull after a marathon 33-hour operation at a military hospital here.
The twins, Rabeya and Rukiya, turned three last month.
Rafiqul Islam, their father, said the doctors have told them that the babies were “doing fine and are in a stable condition” after their skulls were separated.
The twins returned Dhaka on July 22 and were accompanied by a team of about 30 doctors, who participated in the operation, according to Rafiqul.
“We are really grateful to the doctors and others in Bangladesh who helped us. Today, we feel a bit relived,” he said.
The children were born healthy through caesarean operation in Pabna district on July 16, 2016 to school teacher couple Rafiqul and Taslima Khatun and the possibility of separating them was also discussed at that time.
Rafiqul in 2017 told Efe news that they were not prepared for conjoined twins as doctors never told them they were going to have twins and were only told that the size of baby’s head would be bigger than normal.
Ruhul Amin, chief pediatric surgeon at the BSMMU said, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the arrangement of necessary treatment when she learned about the children.
Health Minister Mohammed Nasim handed over a grant to the twins’ parents on behalf of the government on January 4 this year before they were flown to Hungary.
“Since then, they were being treated under the supervision of Hungarian doctors,” said Amin.
It is not the first case of Siamese twins being born and separated in Bangladesh.
In November 2015, two children with two heads and one body were born, but they died shortly after birth as it was impossible to perform surgery on them.
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