Veena
and Vani have lived most of their lives in a hospital in India - and doctors
now fear it is too late to separate them
Conjoined
twin sisters Veena and Vani who are joined at the head have celebrated their
fourteenth birthday.
The
parents of the tragic pair are unable to afford to cater for their special
needs at home, and so they are being cared for and kept at Hyderabad's Niloufer
Hospital, in the South of India, which has been their home for 11 years.
Medics
say it is unlikely that a planned operation to separate them will now ever take
place, as the risk that surgery would involve has increased as they grew older.
The
two were born in Nalgonda district of Telangana and there were attempts at
starting the process of separation but it was seen through.
When
it was not completed, the parents of the two girls abandoned them, saying they
could not afford to even feed them, never mind to take care of their special
needs.
They
said if they were ever to be separated however, they would take them back.
That
never happened though and they have been raised by hospital staff since 2006.
But
campaigners say the hospital conditions are dangerous for the children and they
should be properly cared for by the government.
Mujtaba
Hasan Askari from the charity Helping Hand Foundation told the Times of India:
"The AC ducts and filter need regular cleaning, but that is hardly done,
making them prone to developing skin rashes.
"It
is unfortunate that the government's delay in rehabilitating them outside the
hospital is beginning to take a toll on their health."
There
were repeated attempts to look into surgery again with the latest involving Dr
David Dunaway and Dr Owase Jeelani from London who concluded that there was an
80 percent chance of survival following the surgery.
However
fundraising to pay for the operation has so far failed and the surgery has not
taken place, and is looking increasingly unlikely.
The
birthday comes only a week after surgeons in New York performed marathon
16-hours of surgery to separate to twins conjoined at the head.
Jadon
and Anias McDonald were successfully separated by a team led by Dr James
Goodrich aged 13 months.
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