>> ASIAONE / HEALTH / NEWS / STORY
Second Bangladeshi twin opens eyes after separation op
Fri, Nov 20, 2009
AFP

A second Bangladeshi twin began returning to consciousness on Friday, three days after being separated from her conjoined sister in a landmark operation in Australia, the hospital said.

Krishna was opening her eyes and slowly becoming more alert as she came out of an induced coma, a statement said. Her sister, Trishna, was already awake and talking after the surgery that doctors have hailed as a success.

"Krishna is waking up slowly. She is more alert, starting to breathe more and opening her eyes," the statement from the Royal Children's Hospital said.

"Trishna continues to do well. Both girls are in a serious but stable condition."

A team of specialists worked for 32 hours on Monday and Tuesday to divide the two-year-olds' connected skulls, brains and blood vessels in a procedure that took two years of planning and preparatory operations.

Krishna is expected to make a slower recovery than Trishna, who was "100 percent perfect" after waking up on Thursday, one of their guardians said.

"I just said hello and she was doing the same thing with her arm (that she always does) ... I just knew she was 100 percent perfect," Atom Rahman told Sky News.

Trishna and Krishna were rescued from certain death in an orphanage in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, where doctors said they were powerless to improve the girls' fading health.

But they have been nursed back to fitness since arriving in Australia two years ago and starting preparations for this week's notoriously risky surgery, which was initially given just a 25 percent chance of complete success.

"It's a miracle we have here at the hospital... I can't comprehend, it's like being in the twilight zone," Moira Kelly, their other guardian, said through tears on Wednesday.

 

 
STORY INDEX
 
  Second Bangladeshi twin opens eyes after separation op
   
 
  Movie popcorn plus soda can equal 3 McDonald's burgers
   
 
  China vows to punish H1N1 death cover-ups
   
 
  China orders accurate H1N1 flu tallies
   
 
  Less swine flu, but cases more serious
   
 
  Philip Morris ordered to pay $300 mln to smoker
   
 
  New strain of cholera found
   
 
  Businesswoman, 36, loses nipples during boob removal
   
 
  US Senate eyes first healthcare vote
   
 
  US panel votes against new bug-based flu vaccine
   
>> RELATED STORY
China's official H1N1 death count suspicious
US Senate unveils health care bill
'Fiddly' Australia twin separation surgery passes 24 hours
You know you have diabetes when...
The brown rice option

Elsewhere in AsiaOne...

News: Record-bidding Australian teen sailor crosses equator

Travel: Briton with 'best job' finally lands on Aussie paradise isle

Motoring: World solar car race begins in Australia

Digital: Action video games sharpen eyesight

Business: Australia approves Baotou stake in magnetite

Just Women: SHAPE Run very well-received

Multimedia: Australia bushfires kill 14

 

We welcome contributions, comments and tips.
a1health@sph.com.sg