HYDERABAD: The intertwined existence of Vani and Veena, the conjoined twins from Guntur, now at Niloufer Hospital here, will have to continue for some more time before they go in their own ways.

This is after the team of doctors monitoring them decided to postpone the separation surgery, originally scheduled for the first week of this month, to August-end due to various reasons. The twins were shifted from Guntur General Hospital in April.

Quite at home in an exclusive air-conditioned room, where hospital staff provided them with toys and play material, the twins, who were abandoned by parents soon after birth in 2003, had put on some weight in the first week after they were shifted here.

To undergo scans

According to Niloufer Superintendent N.C.K. Reddy, the children will undergo MRI scans on Wednesday and after a few more medical investigations, will have expanders placed under their skin.

These are to force the skin to grow and cover wounds from the surgery, which can be performed some six weeks after the expanders are in place. While that is one reason for the extension of the date of surgery, the hospital is also planning to perform the surgery in the sophisticated theatre complex that is being readied at the Infosys Golden Jubilee Millennium block of the hospice. "We want to give them the best. That is why we decided to perform the surgery in the new theatre. And anyway, they have to wait because of the skin expanders being placed," Dr. Reddy says.

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