After three months, Odisha doctors refer conjoined twins to AIIMS

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Aug 4:

The hopes of the parents of two conjoined twins from Odisha’s Phulbani district came crashing down like a pack of cards as the doctors on attending the infants have expressed their inability to separate them through surgery.

After over three months of hospitalisation at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the doctors at the state-run hospital have advised the parents to shift them to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi to get the complicated operation done there.

The decision of the doctors has pulled the rug from under their feet.

The poor peasant family had a tough time managing the hospital expenses and the uncertainty over the operaton. Finally, they were left at their wit’s end.

“If surgery cannot be performed on these conjoined twins, then why did the doctors take so long and made us spend so much money in the treatment and other expenses?” Bhuya Kanhar, the father of the twins said.

As per the doctors’ estimate, around Rs 5 lakh is required for the operation at AIIMS. The Kanhar family has already exhausted their resources in the treatment. They can hardly make up Rs 2 lakh at the most, a relative of the Kanhar family said.

“How would a poor farmer like me who hasn’t gone to work for over three months arrange such a big amount for the treatment?” Bhuya wondered.

The craniopagus twins were born to Bhuya Kanhar and Pushpanjali Kanhar at Phiringia government hospital in Phulbani this April. The attending doctors adviced the couple to consult doctors at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics (Sishu Bhavan) here for the complex surgery.

On April 24, the couple visited the paediatrics speciality which referred the case to SCB Medical College and Hospital in the city.

The couple from Melupada village under Phiringia police station limits in Phulbani district admitted their conjoined twin sons to the neuro surgery ward in the hospital.

The hospital formed a 21-member team to look into the rare surgery case. In the meantime, some doctors attending on the twins were transferred. Later, the hospital authorities asked the relatives of the patients to shift him to AIIMS.

After waiting for over three months to see their children separated bodily from each other,, the doctors’ refusal to perform the surgery here has dashed their hopes .

It may be mentioned that Bhuya earns his livelihood from farming and belongs to economically backward section. From his frugal income, he supports a family of five—father, mother, wife and a three-month-old son. And now, the conjoined twins have added to his financial woes as he has depleted his savings for the treatment of the children.