SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Doctors in Singapore may separate one-year-old Indonesian twin girls conjoined at
the waist but are weighing up whether the risks are too great.
Splitting the girls would require elaborate and risky surgery, according to details of their case published in
Singapore's Straits Times newspaper on Thursday.
One girl has a hole in her heart. If she suffers a heart attack in surgery, both would most likely die, the report
said.
The intestines of the girls are joined and each would end up with just one leg because a third leg lacks a proper
knee or hip joints, the report said.
"Our doctors are still evaluating whether it is feasible to separate the conjoined twins," said a spokeswoman
from Parkway Holdings Ltd., which owns Mount Elizabeth Hospital where the girls were tested after arriving from
Indonesia last month.
The girls, born in rural poverty but sponsored by wealthy Indonesians after a local doctor refused to operate on
them, have been moved to another Parkway hospital in Singapore, Gleneagles.
Specialists from Singapore's KK Women's and Children's Hospital, also reviewed the twins at the request of
Mount Elizabeth.
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