MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA // Twin Bangladeshi girls who were joined at the top of their heads and shared blood vessels and brain tissue were successfully separated today after 25 hours of delicate surgery, hospital officials said. It is too early to know whether the two-year-old girls, Trishna and Krishna, suffered any brain damage during the marathon operation - an outcome doctors said had a 50-50 chance. The girls, who were brought to Australia as infants by an aid organisation, will remain in an induced coma for monitoring for several days after the completion of the surgery. A team of 16 surgeons and nurses began the work on separating the girls Monday morning. "The teams managed to separate their brains and they are both very well," Royal Children's Hospital chief Leo Donnan said. "Now we have the long task of the reconstructive surgery, which will go on for many hours." Plastic surgeons will reconstruct the girls' skulls using a combination of their own skin, bone grafts and artificial materials. "Their bodies have to recover from this, and we've got a lot of unknown territory we're moving into," Mr Donnan said. "All I can say is that everything is in place for the best possible outcome. The main thing is that the girls are healthy." Earlier today, Ian McKenzie, a member of the surgical team, said the girls were improving as their bodies began to work individually. "The twins are actually in better condition because the degree of separation has increased and this problem we've had with their circulation affecting each other has actually gotten less," he said. The girls shared parts of their skull, brain tissue and blood flow. Before the surgery, doctors had said there was a 50 per cent chance the girls could suffer brain damage and a 25 per cent chance one of the sisters would die. They were found in an orphanage in Bangladesh in 2007 by a representative from the Children First Foundation, who took them to Australia.
* AP
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The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct to Kolkata from Dh1,504 and Dh1,450 return including taxes, respectively. The flight takes four hours 30 minutes outbound and 5 hours 30 minute returning.
The trains
Numerous trains link Kolkata and Murshidabad but the daily early morning Hazarduari Express (3’ 52”) is the fastest and most convenient; this service also stops in Plassey. The return train departs Murshidabad late afternoon. Though just about feasible as a day trip, staying overnight is recommended.
The hotels
Mursidabad’s hotels are less than modest but Berhampore, 11km south, offers more accommodation and facilities (and the Hazarduari Express also pauses here). Try Hotel The Fame, with an array of rooms from doubles at Rs1,596/Dh90 to a ‘grand presidential suite’ at Rs7,854/Dh443.
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Your love is ruling over my heart
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Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
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You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
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The final pieces are being revealed in a worldwide limited-edition release on the first day of Downtown Designs at Dubai Design Week 2019. Tashkeel will be at stand E31 at the exhibition.
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