Mumbai conjoined twins separated after 12 hours surgery by 20 doctors

Mumbai: For Seetal Zalte and her husband Sagar, the 13 hours they spent outside an operation theatre in city-based BJ Wadia Hospital on Tuesday seemed endless.

However, at 5 PM, the agonising wait seemed worthwhile when a doctor broke the news that Love and Prince, over one-year-old conjoined twins of the couple, had been successfully separated by a team of 20 doctors following a complex surgery.

Love and Prince now lie in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of the hospital in separate cots.

Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia Hospitals, said the twins were conjoined at the abdomen and hip and both had a common liver, intestine and urinary bladder.

"It was a unique surgery that involved a team of 20 doctors who planned and performed the 12-hour long complex and complicated surgery successfully on December 12," Dr Bodhanwala told reporters here.

The couple first learnt about the anomaly in the 24th week of Seetal's pregnancy when a scan conducted at Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital showed that the twins were fused waist down.

They were born conjoined with a fused liver, intestine, urinary bladder, and chest bone to Zaltes, residents of suburban Ghatkopar, in September 2016.

According to Dr Bodhanwala, the Zaltes were counselled about the medical condition of the conjoined twins, but they decided to go ahead with the delivery.

Following the birth of Love and Prince, the doctors decided to wait for at least six months before conducting a surgery to separate them.

The boys were fused in such a way that they faced each other. However, they had two individual sets of hands and legs, separate brain, lungs and heart.