IANS/Hyderabad
Conjoined twins Vani and Veena are facing an uncertain future after doctors ruled out a surgery to separate them and their parents said they were unwilling to take care of them without government assistance. The parents, both daily wage labourers, yesterday told the government-run Niluofer Hospital for Children here that they are not in a position to take their nine-year-old twins home.After one-and-half years, Murali and Nagalakshmi of Nalgonda district visited the hospital after they were summoned by the authorities. The couple told the hospital that they cannot take care of their daughters unless the government gives financial assistance.The couple, who have two more daughters, told the officials that they would take care of the twins if the government provided money for their treatment.Hospital Superintendent Ramesh Reddy said the twins did not require any medical supervision. He said the twins can live a normal life if they stay with children of their age.He clarified that the hospital has not discharged the twins and also denied that the parents were being pressured to take them home. “It is our duty to talk to the parents and we will take a decision which is in the interests of the children,” he told reporters.Another hospital official denied that the twins were proving a burden on the facility or that the authorities were trying to send them to an orphanage. “The twins can remain here but we want the department of women development and child welfare to take their custody and put them through a process of learning,” he said.The twins have been in the hospital for five years and say they do not want to go to any other place.Confined to a room in the hospital, they watch cartoon programmes on television.The twins have spent most of their life in hospital. They were earlier in a hospital in Guntur for three years.They were born in Nalgonda district, after which their parents took them to Guntur.Doctors feel the twins should now be trained to personally take care of themselves and given some sort of education. They believe psychological and socio-cultural development of the children will not be possible in the hospital environment.Doctors at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai and East Shore Hospital of Singapore have ruled out surgery to separate the conjoined twins. According to doctors, the surgery may lead to death of one or both of them as they share a blood vessel in the brain.