Treat conjoined twins at AIIMS, SC tells Bihar

The teenaged conjoined twins from Bihar will finally get treated. The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre and the state to make arrangements for airlifting the children to Delhi to get them operated upon at the AIIMS.

The teenaged conjoined twins from Bihar will finally get treated. The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre and the state to make arrangements for airlifting the children to Delhi to get them operated upon at the AIIMS.

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A bench of justice KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said the Bihar government would bear the cost of providing an air ambulance to bring 16-years-old Saba and Farah to the Capital within 10 days. It also directed the Centre to make arrangements for the stay of parents.

Acting on a PIL filed by a law student, the SC had on July 16 asked the Centre to form a medical board to provide treatment to the twins.

While seeking medical aid at government's expenditure, the petitioner prayed for “mercy killing” of the twins if their treatment wasn’t possible. The girls' father, a tea stall owner in Patna, had pleaded mercy killings last year after he learnt that the procedure to separate them would take time and incur heavy expenditure.

Experts had also opined that at each stage operation there was one-in-five chance for either of the girls to die.

The girls have been bedridden and are experiencing acute agony. They are neither able to sleep adequately nor get up from bed and this has made their lives miserable, said the petition.