KOLKATA: The surviving conjoined twin, separated at
SSKM Hospital
, died on Tuesday, less than 12 hours after the other sibling died.
The infants went into a shock following a four-hour separation surgery last Thursday, nearly 24 hours after they were born. They never recovered from the loss of fluids, said
SSKM
doctors.
"We were not prepared for the complicated surgery that requires a lot of groundwork. The twins' mother-Taslima Bibi-was brought to hospital when she was on the verge of delivering the babies. She had not undergone even a basic
USG
that could give us an idea about the twins or their health. Doctors learnt they were conjoined only after they were delivered," said a neo-natal expert.
Attached to each other at the intestinal level, one baby girl had gastrochisis, in which the abdominal contents spill out of the stomach wall through a hole beside the belly button. Neo-natal surgeons Dipankar Ray and
Suman Das put the contents in, temporarily. "Conjoined twins should be separated within two hours of birth. But here, none was prepared, and it took us nearly a day to arrange for the surgery," said a surgeon.