Conjoined twins Veena and Vani can soon enjoy their own independent life, thanks to doctors from a Londo-based hospital who have come forward to separate the sisters.
Dr David James Dunaway and Dr Noor Ul Owase from Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London examined the girls on Saturday and found more than 80% chances of being successfully separating the sisters who have been joined at the head for the past 11 years.
Citing their experience in successfully handling two similar cases in the past, the surgeons said that they were planning to conduct the surgery in five different stages.
"We feel that there is a good chance for both of them to get separated safely. There's no denying the complexity of the whole process, but we already have successfully handled two similar cases in the past," the doctors said, while addressing the reporters, on Saturday, The Hindu reported.
Veena and Vani are children of Naga and Maragani Murali, a farmer in Beerusettigudem, a small village in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh.
Conjoined twins are formed when a woman releases a single egg that fails to separate completely after fertilisation. Though the embryo starts splitting into two, the process stops in the middle and the partial separation results in conjoined twins.
The girls were born fused at the skulls, due to a rare medical condition known as craniopagus. They have separate brains, but share an important blood vessel, according to Friday Magazine.
The girls were abandoned by their poor parents shortly after their birth in October 2003, as they couldn't afford to bear their expenses with Maragani's daily wage of ₹50. Apart from the twins, the couple has two daughters - Bindu (13) and Sindhu (9).
Since the last eight years, the twins are under the care and supervision of Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad. The parents visit their twins every two or three months.
The girls' pathetic condition has received attention across the world and people have revealed their willingness to adopt the girls.
"I live in the United States and would like to look into providing a home for them here, with me, if they are still residing at your hospital," Jacqueline Campbell, from US wrote to the hospital, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the girls. "I would have to know what type of medical care they would need to have, but I am a stay at home homemaker who has the time and desire to take care of these two sweet girls and as long as I can do this, they should not be growing up in a hospital environment."
The state government announced in 2012 that they were ready to bear all the expenses needed to conduct the surgery.
Doctors from different parts of the world have been examining the girls to check the possibility of a surgery.
In April 2012, doctors from US dropped their plans to proceed with the surgery as they found very little chances of saving the girls.
