MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Formerly conjoined twins from Bhutan have been released from an Australian hospital more than two weeks after they were separated in a delicate surgery.
The 15-month-old girls Nima and Dawa were joined from the lower chest to just above the pelvis and shared a liver. They were separated during an operation at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital on Nov. 9 that lasted almost six hours. A major challenge had been to reconstruct their abdomens.
Their grateful mother Bhumchu Zangmo said Monday as she wheeled her daughters from the hospital where their lives have been transformed since their arrival on Oct. 2: "Thank you, everyone."
The hospital's head of pediatric surgery Joe Crameri told reporters the twins had made an "excellent recovery" and were acting independently.
