(20 May 2005) SHOTLIST
1. Various exteriors of Gleneagles hospital
2. Various of the twins with their parents
3. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa) Armaini, twin's mother
"They will undergo an operation tomorrow and I hope both of them will be safe and continue their activities individually"
4. Various of the twins and their parents
5. Twins farther Sobari standing outside hospital
6. SOUNDBITE (Bahasa) Sobari, Twin's father
"Anybody would be sad to see their daughters in my daughters predicament, considering they are just 15 months old and they face an big operation tomorrow. Frankly I am sad but also happy because the day I have been waiting for has finally come"
7. Exterior of Hospital
STORYLINE:
Singapore surgeons will perform separation surgery Saturday on a pair of 15-month-old conjoined Indonesian girls fused at the stomach and hips, their father said.
On the eve of the operation, the twin's mother and father, Armaini and Sobari, spent precious moments with their daughters inside the Gleneagles hospital ward.
Armaini hoped her girls would be able to lead individual lives after the operation.
Sobari said that he was both happy and sad his daughters had to undergo the operation, but that they had all been waiting for the opportunity to separate them.
He added that the operation would take around 20 hours and that doctors were hopeful of a successful separation.
The twins arrived in Singapore in February and have undergone a battery of tests to determine whether the operation could go forward. They share three legs.
Sobari, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, said the girls were healthy, and they were praying every day for a safe operation.
Hospital officials declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press about the cost of the operation.
Conjoined twins occur about once in every 150,000 to 200,000 live births. Up to 60 percent of conjoined twins are stillborn, and 35 percent survive 24 hours or less. Those who survive longer are often plagued by medical complications due to shared organs and vital systems.
Singapore doctors have had varied results in the separation of conjoined twins in recent years. In 2001, Nepalese twins Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha, whose conjoined heads were separated in an unprecedented 97-hour operation, now lie sick and virtually immobile in a cramped apartment in Nepal's capital. They turned 5 on May 9.
Two years ago, doctors successfully separated a pair of Korean twins fused at the spine but weeks later, Iranian adult twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani - joined at the head - died from massive blood loss during an operation to separate them.
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