Summary

TAPE: EF03/0667 IN_TIME: 01:23:17 DURATION: 1:41 SOURCES: Channel News Asia RESTRICTIONS: DATELINE: Singapore, 23 July 2003 SHOTLIST: 1. Still of father with twins 2. Various of Raffles Hospital spokesman 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Joan Thong Pao-Wen, Gynaecologist, Raffles Hospital: "The parents only had two requirements: that they would have normal bowel function, and that since they're both female, that they would grow up one day and not just leave separate lives (without sexual partners), but you know, be able to get married, have children, and I think we've managed to achieve that today for them." 4. Various stills of twins 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Joan Thong Pao-Wen, Gynaecologist, Raffles Hospital: "They put on a lot of weight over the last one month, they were already trying to sit up and they were fighting each other, they were already getting frustrated, I can't believe that, at four months they were frustrated that they couldn't function as separate human beings." 6. Stills of twins 7. Set up presser 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Prem Kumar, spokesman for Raffles Hospital: "As you know, the fusion of the two twins involved many organs in the pelvis and this involved several specialities like pediatric surgery, neurosurgery, gynaecology and plastic resconstructive surgery. So we had to have a whole team to do this." 9. Pull out flowers left at hospital by well-wisher STORYLINE: Doctors at Raffles Hospital in Singapore remain hopeful that the conjoined twins from South Korea separated in a marathon five-and-a-half hour operation should be able to live full lives. But surgeons said on Wednesday that that only time will tell whether the baby girls will overcome skull and spinal deformities developed in the first few months of their lives. Four-month-old Min Ji-hye and Min Sa-rang were connected at the pelvis, the lower end of their spine, the lower end of their intestinal tract and some parts of their genitalia before Singaporean doctors surgically separated them on Tuesday. Raffles gynaecologist Dr Joan Thong Pao-Wen told reporters that she hoped the sisters would have good bladder, bowel and reproductive functions. But Dr. Keith Goh, one of nine surgeons who operated, said it was too early to tell if the girls would overcome deformities, including twisted lower spines and heads flattened by the position they were forced to sleep in during their first four months. The surgery required "careful and meticulous dissection" of the conjoined areas, Goh said. "Some areas were millimeters apart and we had to navigate through very narrow, fine territory." The procedure came just two weeks after a team of surgeons at Raffles Hospital failed to successfully separate Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian twins born joined at the head. The 29-year-old sisters died in the operating room, 90 minutes apart, from massive blood loss. The Min sisters are in stable condition and are expected to be able to go home with their parents in about two to three weeks.