Conjoined twin sisters: Trishna able to speak as Krishna still in coma

November 19, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: Baby Health, News

Trishna and Krishna, the Bangladeshi conjoined twin sisters separated this week, are both doing well, though Trishna is awake and acting normally, in fact, “phenomenally good” the head of the surgery team said.

Wirginia Maixner, director of neurosurgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne said Trishna is already doing well enough that she could leave intensive care. “She looks brilliant, she is talking, she is being Trishna, she is behaving the way she always has,” Maixner said.

Her sister, Krishna, will be slowly brought out of the coma later Thursday.

Krishna will have a longer period of adjustment as the separation brought more changes to her body and brain’s blood circulation.

MRI scans Wednesday showed no signs of brain injury. Maixner said they hoped to have an indication Thursday night or early Friday about how Krishna’s brain was responding.

The twins, who turn 3 next month, had been joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissue and blood vessels. They were separated Tuesday after 25 hours of delicate surgery, and then underwent an additional six hours of reconstructive work.

An aid worker first saw Trishna and Krishna in a Bangladeshi orphanage in 2007 when they were only a month old, and arranged for them to be brought to Australia.