India: Nearly a year after a set of conjoined twins were born to a 26-year old mother at Parel-based Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital on September 19, 2016, doctors separated them on December 12, with a series of complex surgeries.

In what doctors call an extremely rare birth – one in over five lakh – the twins, Love and Prince also had a common liver, urinary bladder, intestines and fused pelvic bones, reports the Hindustan Times.

‘They had to be operated very carefully as we feared that they may suffer heavy bleeding or their blood pressure may drop,’ said Dr Pradnya Bendre, head of paediatric surgery, Wadia Hospital, who led the team of 30 doctors monitoring the children in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

‘The surgery lasted for 12 hours. Giving anesthesia to children is always challenging, as one has to be very accurate with the dose,’ she added.

Doctors said the children are now in a stable condition, however, they have inadequate skin to cover the internal organs because of which they have used ‘prosthetic mesh’ and collagen, to prevent infections.

Their mother, Sheetal Zalte, who hails from Vadodara, Gujarat, and lives with her husband in Ghatkopar, said she learnt about the their condition during the fifth month of her pregnancy, when she was visiting her parents.

‘The doctor that I visited in Vikhroli with the anomaly scan reports and sonography test told me nothing about my children’s condition,’ she said. ‘I learnt about their conjoint condition from a gynaecologist in Vadodara,’ she added.

Once the twins were delivered, doctors told them that they could be separated surgically, after a few months. Riddhi and Siddhi, conjoined twins underwent a separation surgery at the city’s BJ Wadia Hospital in June 2014. They were also joined at the abdomen and shared a common bladder.

‘While in Riddhi and Siddhi’s case they were conjoined in such a way, that their heads were in the opposite direction, so they faced away from each other, however, in the case of Love and Prince, their heads were aligned such that they face each other,’ Dr Bendre said.

Dr. Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia Hospitals, said ‘At tender age of 1 year and 3 months, Love and Prince underwent this complicated surgery and are currently stable in paediatric Intensive Care Unit. They will be under observation for few days, which will be followed by multiple surgeries to ensure they are healthy and fit to survive. The most challenging part of the surgery was to provide skin to cover both the children.’