Team of 100 doctors successfully separate conjoined 13-month-old twin girls – named Little Magic and Little Bamboo Tree – after painstaking 12-hour operation in Vietnam
- Truc Nhi (Little Bamboo Tree) and Dieu Nhi (Little Magic) were fused at the hip
- Babies doing well after team of 100 medics worked for 12 hours to separate them
- The girls were delivered by cesarean section at 33 weeks in June 2019
- A core team of nine doctors have been planning the separation surgery since
Conjoined 13-month-old twin girls who were fused together at the hip have been successfully separated by doctors in Vietnam.
Truc Nhi (Little Bamboo Tree) and Dieu Nhi (Little Magic) are doing well after a team of 100 medics worked for 12 hours to separate them at City Children’s Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Over the next three months, doctors will help the babies regrow their digestive and urinary tracts as well as close their individual pelvises.
Conjoined one-year-old twin girls who were fused together at the hip (pictured) have been successfully separated by doctors in Vietnam
The baby girls, Truc Nhi (Little Bamboo Tree) and Dieu Nhi (Little Magic) are doing well after a team of 100 medics worked for 12 hours (pictured) to separate them
The girls were delivered by cesarean section at 33 weeks after doctors realised they were joined at the pelvis.
The babies – who shared an umbilical cord – were severely malnourished and required around-the clock care after they were born.
Hospital director Truong Quang Dinh said: ‘Up to now, this can be considered as a successful surgery and this is a first successful step.
Over the next three months, doctors must help the babies (pictured before their surgery) regrow their digestive and urinary tract as well as close their individual pelvises
‘The recovery process will be difficult and more challenging for the hospital.
‘We will focus and do everything to ensure this is a great success.’
The twins weigh 33lbs and are in good health, hospital staff said.
A core team of nine doctors have been planning the separation surgery since the twins were born in June 2019.
The children’s mother Thuy (left) holding the girls alongside their father before the surgery
The girls (pictured in a hospital bed) were delivered by cesarean section at 33 weeks after doctors City Children’s Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City realised they were joined at the pelvis
Hospital director Truong Quang Dinh said: ‘Up to now, this can be considered as a successful surgery and this is a first successful step.’ Pictured: The babies being taken in for surgery
The girls were joined in such a way that if Truc Nhi is sitting, Dieu Nhi must be lying on her back requiring constant monitoring.
Professor Tran Dong A, 79, said: ‘The chances of the children making a full recovery are very positive thanks to advanced surgical techniques and equipment.’
The professor successfully performed another operation to separate Vietnamese twin boys in 1988.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and acting minister of heath Nguyen Thanh Long sent a message of congratulations to the team of doctors and asked them to pass on their best wishes to the two baby sisters.
The girls will need more operations to complete the separation, including plastic surgery, the hospital said.
A core team of nine doctors have been planning the separation surgery since the twins were born in June 2019. Pictured: The twins’ parents nervously awaiting news of their daughters