Rokeya, Rabeya reach Budapest

Conjoined twins Rokeya and Rabeya reached Hungarian capital Budapest yesterday to receive preparatory treatments before the final surgery for separation.

Their parents, an elder sister, and a doctor are accompanying them.

Dr Samanta Lal Sen, chief coordinator of the burn units across the country, said the family landed in Hungary to heavy snowfall, which caused a delay in their getting out of the airport. The family, which will stay in Budapest for three months, have rented a flat in the city. They will admit the two girls to the hospital in the next couple of days, he added, after communicating with the family.

Dr Sen said he has been observing the twins for last year and a half, and did not find any abnormality in the babies apart from their fused skulls. “The two babies are jolly. They can't see each other when they walk, but have done so using a mirror,” he said.

When this correspondent visited the twins in their cabin at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Friday, they were seen taking bangles from their mother Taslima Khatun's hands and putting them on their own hands. They looked at their mother and laughed loudly.

Taslima said she and her husband know well about the risks related to the surgery, but have decided to go for it anyway.

A doctor, preferring not to be named, said there is no alternative to the separation surgery, because when the babies grow up, the complications will increase.

Doctors say the sisters may live normal lives as two separate individuals after the surgery, which will take place in Bangladesh six or seven months later.

The twins were born joined at the head on July 16, 2016, to primary school teachers Taslima and Rafiqul Islam in Pabna. They can talk and walk now and are under supervision at Sheikh Hasina Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery of DMCH.