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Kathmandu Monday November 19, 2001 Marga 04, 2058.
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Alive and well, Ganga, Jamuna
return home
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Nov 18 : Ganga and Jamuna, possibly
the most famous twins in the world, returned home Sunday after doctors in Singapore
successfully separated the siamese twins joined on their heads.
After over a year in Singapore, the 18-month-old
girls returned home to Nepal accompanied by their parents and grandparents.
"When they had left Nepal they were one but
now I have two daughters," father of the twins Bhusan K.C. told reporters.
"The whole episode was a miracle. Jamuna is
quite normal and more active than her sister Ganga, who has remained weaker
throughout," said Arjun Dev Shrestha, grandfather of the twins. "She can say a
few words in English but no Nepali."
Doctors said that while Jamuna can sit up and is
quite a social child, Ganga has trouble propping herself up and is more introverted. She
also has problems with her sight. Before the operation Ganga was the more lively of the
two.
As soon as the Singapore Airlines jet bringing
the twins home landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport, an ambulance waiting for
them whisked the twins to a hospital.
Shrestha said the girls would be living in
Kathmandu for at least two months before they decide on when or whether they would move
them to Salyan district in the midwestern hills, where hospitals and doctors are a rare
sight and the area severely hit by Maoists insurgency.
"We don’t have medical facilities back
there so we will have to keep them in Kathmandu for a while," Shrestha said.
Back in Khalanga, relatives and friends waited
by the one phone at the public communication booth to get news of the arrival of Ganga and
Jamuna.
"We have not been able to talk to the
parents or see the girls but we have been waiting by the phone for news of the arrival
since Saturday. We could never have imagined that such a miracle was possible but this is
like a dream ... a dream come true," said Bharat K.C., the uncle of the twins.
He said that most of the family members had
doubts that the surgery would be successful or that the twins would survive but now all of
them are anxiously waiting for the homecoming, which is not likely to happen any time
soon.
"I have not seen the girls .. I want to see
them but I am in no state to travel to Kathmandu," said Netra Bahadur Khatri,
Bhusan’s father. "We had support from everyone, especially the Nepalis,"
said the father Bhusan.
However, his wife did not seem to share the same
sentiments. She stormed out of the ambulance and yelled at journalists who were talking to
the doctor and the grandfather.
"I will return back to Singapore," she
threatened as the reporters covering the event looked stunned at the remark. In the
initial days, it was the local media who advocated the case and helped the trip to
Singapore materialise.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the two
girls had captured the hearts of Singaporeans, who donated hundreds of thousands of
dollars to pay their medical expenses. Doctors performed the surgery for free and the
country’s national carrier, Singapore Airlines, paid for the family’s trip from
Nepal.
Around 660,000 Singapore dollars (US$ 359,500)
was collected from donations from the Singapore public during the time the twins were
here, said a Singapore General Hospital spokeswoman, who asked to remain anonymous.
"The bulk of it (the money) will have gone
to pay the hospital fees already," she said, adding that she did not know how much
was left over.
The money that’s remaining will be put into
a trust administered by the hospital and M.N. Swami, who is Nepal’s Consul in
Singapore, the spokeswoman said. Some funds from the trust "may be sent over to Nepal
... to help pay for their (the twins’) expenses," the spokeswoman said.
The doctors who worked with the twins did so for
free, waiving their professional fees, the spokeswoman said. The hospital gave the
twins’ family "concession rates" on some hospital fees but couldn’t
waive all the fees "because we’re a public hospital," the spokeswoman said.
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