Bhutanese conjoined twins in Melbourne for surgery

Bhutanese conjoined 14-months twins Nima and Dawa have reached Melbourne on Tuesday along with their mum Bhumchu Zangmo for a life-saving surgery. They will undergo treatment at the Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

Nima and Dawa were born conjoined at the chest facing each other and scans carried out in Bhutan suggested they shared a liver.

Children First Foundation sponsored their flight for surgery which is estimated to cost over A$300,000 and take at least eight hours to complete.

“Based on reports we’ve had from the doctors and the imaging we’ve seen, they would appear to be joined and sharing mainly a liver, but we don’t know the exact anatomy of that,” said Mark O’Brien, head of surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Doctors involved in the treatment are hopeful both twins would be able to survive as the twins appeared to be “at the easier end of the spectrum” of conjoined twins cases.

The twins will need to gain some weight, who lost recently, and improve their nutrition before the surgery goes ahead.