| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (28 min. 54 sec.) ; 175149415 bytes |
| Summary |
Together their future was very uncertain, almost certainly bleak. They'd been surrendered by their parents and shunned by their village. Separated, they had better chance of a normal life but there were risks as well. Conjoined 11 month-old twins Stuti and Aradhana had the best medical expertise on their case, including three specialists from Australia. In this emotion charged journey into India, Foreign Correspondent discovers best intentions, love and a crack international surgical team offer hope, but there can be no guarantees.Life for little girls in many parts of India, particularly its dirt poor corners, can be very difficult indeed. So what hope for two 'adorable' little girls born conjoined, with two tiny hearts beating in a shared sac and sharing a single liver?Stuti and Aradhana's mother and father wrestled with what to do with the twins. The family were poor famers from a remote village and they decided the babies were best left with the staff of the hospital they were born in. They quickly became a part of a bigger, loving family very keen to ensure a better future for the girls."Well, they are absolutely adorable. If you see Stuti, she is shy, she will smile but she is shy. Aradhana will see you from a distance and her face will light up. They are really adorable." - Dr Deepa Choudrhie, Padhar HospitalAs the staff mounted an India-wide fund raising campaign for surgery, hospital chief Dr Rajiv Choudhrie called on a friend now practising at Sydney's Children's Hospital at Westmead. Former fellow medical student Dr Gordon Thomas in turn leant on a couple of his mates to help out. Eminent paediatric surgeon Albert Shun and anaesthetist David Baines soon joined what would be an operating team of 24 doctors and 40 nurses."I figure the best chance they've got to make some sort of life is to be separate. They really didn't have a life if they continued to be conjoined. So I think all you can do is offer them a chance and the future will be what the future will be." Professor David Baines, Anaesthetist.If the surgical team was big, it was dwarfed by local media who also descended on the small, rudimentary hospital to cover the story.Foreign Correspondent secured intimate, candid access to the extraordinary medical team and the marathon effort to separate Stuti and Aradhana for this powerful, emotional roller-coaster of a story. Reporter Zoe Daniel witnesses breath-taking scenes."It's so hard to describe - two little hearts beating together. It's amazing. (The doctors) told me it would be the most amazing thing I've ever seen and it's true." - Zoe Daniel |
| Event |
Broadcast 2012-08-14 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
| Subject |
Children -- Surgery.
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Conjoined twins.
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Fund raising -- Psychological aspects.
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Infants -- Family relationships.
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Medical personnel, Foreign.
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India.
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New South Wales -- Westmead.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Daniel, Zoe, reporter
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Baines, David, contributor
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Choudhrie, Deepa, contributor
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Choudhrie, Rajiv, contributor
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Shun, Albert, contributor
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Thomas, Gordon, contributor
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