Forty days after the conjoined twins Tofa and Tahura were separated, they have been released from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), with their father getting an assurance that he would be given a  job. Health and family welfare minister Mohammed Nasim handed over the discharge certificate to Raju Miah, father of the twin girls, at a programme at DMCH yesterday and saw them off the hospital.

The DMCH director, Brig. Gen. AKM Nasiruddin, said at the programme that a joint account (No. 13915173740) has been opened with the Imamganj branch of Dutch-Bangla Bank so that well-off people can help the poor family. The health minister called upon well-off people to come forward to support the Tofa and Tahura’s family.

The doctors who performed the surgery of the twins bought new dresses for the baby girls and their parents. Wearing new clothes, Tofa and Tohura left Dhaka around 4:00pm for their village home in Sundarganj of Gaibandha by an ambulance.

The health minister expressed hope that the twins would live a healthy life with standardized medicare.

On behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the people, he greeted the medical team that performed the complex surgery to separate the twins, who were joined from back to below their waist and shared a single anus.

“Our doctors are showing their brilliance despite shortage of beds, modern equipment and huge pressure of patients,” said the minister.  Dr Shahnoor Islam, head of the paediatrics surgery unit of DMCH, who led the surgery, said the successful operation was a result of combined efforts of all doctors and nurses of the hospital. “Tofa and Tahura are now doing well and taking normal food. The twins have started behaving normally and sitting on their own. They may need two more risky surgeries later,” she added.

As many as 16 physicians of Dhaka Medical College Hospital took part in the operation on Tofa and Tahura.

Dr Abul Kalam Azad, director of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of DMCH, said this was a rare pattern of ‘Pygopagus’ twins. About 14 such twins were born in the world. Of the previous 13 cases, 60 per cent have died due to post-operation complications, he added. “We were the happiest to see them off with smiles,” he said. On August 1, the conjoined twins had been separated after a nine-hour-long surgery at the DMCH.  The 10-month-old twins were born in Dohbon village of Gaibandha district.