Jaga & Kalia set for happy homecoming

Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Separated craniopagus conjoined twins – Jaga and Kalia – will return to Odisha soon and they will be shifted to a hospital in Bhubaneswar, informed National Health Mission (NHM) Managing Director Shalini Pandit after holding talks with doctors at AIIMS, New Delhi on Saturday.

Jaga and Kalia were craniopagus conjoined twins – joined at the head – were successfully separated after a 21-hour surgery in October 2017 at the premier hospital.

“The AIIMS, New Delhi will issue an advisory regarding the mode of transportation for shifting separated conjoined twins – Jaga and Kalia to Odisha within a week and necessary arrangements will be made accordingly. A date for their discharge will be fixed shortly,” said Pandit.

Though the exact date of their discharge is yet to be fixed, but they will return Odisha soon, added Pandit.

Pandit held an hour-long discussion on the current status of Jaga and Kalia with the AIIMS doctors – professor of Neurosurgery Dr Deepak Kumar Gupta, Dr IB Singh of Hospital Administration and Dr GP Rath of Neuro-Anesthesia.

Expert doctors from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Postgraduate Institute of Paediatrics, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar-based Apollo Hospital attended the meeting.

The craniopagus twins from Milipada village in Kandhamal had left for Delhi on July 13, 2017. The first phase of the surgery was performed on August 28, when the doctors created a venous bypass to separate the veins shared by the twins that carried blood to the heart from the brain. The final separation of the twins took a 21-hour-long surgery and was carried out by a team of around 30 specialists from the institute led by the then neurosurgery chief  Dr Ashok Mohapatra on October 25 and 25, 2017.

The medical expenses is being borne by the Odisha Government.

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