PHOTO COURTESY: ABC
MELBOURNE: Australian surgeons began operating early Friday to separate 15-month-old Bhutanese twins joined at the torso.
Nima and Dawa, and their mother Bhumchu Zangmo, arrived in Australia a month ago with the help of an Australian charity but doctors had delayed the surgery until Friday to ensure the twins were well-enough nourished to support the operation.
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"We feel confident that we've put everything in place to move forward today," Joe Crameri, the head of paediatric surgery at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, told reporters Friday.
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He said the operation was expected to last around six hours and would involve 18 medical staff divided into two teams, one for each girl.
The girls were known to share a liver, but could also share part of the bowel, which would complicate the surgery, Crameri said, but added that the chance for a successful operation was "looking very positive".
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