Separated twins beat the odds

This photo taken from Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne shows guardian Moira Kelly, left, with Daniella Noble, right, the woman who found conjoined twins Trishna, bottom, and Krishna at a Dhaka orphanage in 2007. The twins appeared yesterday to have beaten the odds with their miracle story of survival, both awaking from landmark separation surgery happy and well. Photo: AFPStar Report

Bangladeshi conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna appeared yesterday to have beaten the odds with their miracle story of survival, both awaking from landmark separation surgery happy and well, reports AFP from Melbourne.

As they faced the prospect of looking at each other face-to-face for the first time, the successful separation of the two-year-olds who were born joined at the head has been hailed as a medical triumph.

Their guardian Moira Kelly, who has cared for the girls since their arrival in Australia two years ago, said it was hoped that the children's cots could be brought together soon so they could touch each other.

"They're too weak to look at each other, they're too sleepy so we're not there for that yet, but we're early days and you know, take it day by day," said Kelly, from the Children First Foundation charity.

Krishna and Trishna, who turn three next month, were separated by a 16-member medical team on Tuesday and are recovering slowly from the 32-hour marathon surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

Trishna woke up on Thursday but Krishna, the weaker of the pair, emerged fully from the medically induced coma on Saturday. Both appear to be neurologically sound.

Meanwhile, Lovely and Kartik Mallick, the biological parents of the twins, are eagerly waiting back in Bangladesh for the day when they hope they will be flown to Melbourne to see their daughters.

Lovely said Moira Kelly, the Australian legal guardian of Trishna and Krishna, phoned her on Saturday to ask if they want to see their daughters, reports our correspondent in Khulna.

"I promptly expressed my eagerness and urged her to see if arrangements could be made to take us to Australia so that we can see our daughters," Lovely said while talking to The Daily Star at her Khulna residence yesterday.

Moira Kelly is the founder of Children First Foundation charity that made arrangement to take the conjoined twins to Melbourne two years ago.

Trishna and Krishna were joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissues and blood vessels and the success of the 32-hour complicated surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne to separate the babies hit world news headlines.

The biological parents who had put their newborns up for adoption said they want to maintain contacts with their daughters.

"It is our fervent appeal to the authorities of the charity to allow us to keep contact with our daughters," Lovely and Kartik told The Daily Star.

Lovely, 25, a final year student of diploma in agriculture at Shaheed Flight Lieutenant Masud Memorial College at Keshabpur in Jessore, gave birth to the conjoined twins on December 22, 2006.

Lovely said they had taken the heartbreaking decision to put their daughters in an orphanage in Dhaka because of their poor financial condition. "We are too poor to maintain the huge costs needed for taking care of my daughters for their survival," she said.

"We had no alternative to giving Nirmal Shishu Bhaban an undertaking in writing that we would not claim the babies in the future. Trishna and Krishna remained there for 17 days," said Lovely.

The Children First Foundation, which took the twins to Australia for surgery, said it would support their further treatment in Australia for at least next two years.

"Each and every moment of my life is now filled with the thrill and emotion of the prospect of having a glimpse of my daughters. I am counting days for the moment when I'll see my daughters and hold them to my bosom and kiss them," she said.

The twins' conjoined condition was detected in an ultrasonography at a private clinic at Jorhagate in Khulna, said Dr Girindra Nath Kundu, who owns the clinic and also performed the caesarean section on Lovely.

"The babies had been under treatment in my clinic for 16 days. Later, I sent them to Mother Teresa Nirmala Shishu Bhaban for further treatment as the parents had no means to bear the huge expenses here," Dr Kundu said.