Her sister, Ganga, was still in the operating room with plastic surgeons, said hospital spokeswoman Junaidah Hameed. The Nepalese twins were connected at the tops of their heads and shared the same brain cavity. Their brains were partially fused and they shared many blood vessels, making the separation surgery extremely difficult. Surgeons began operating on the twins Friday afternoon and finished Tuesday morning, about 88 hours later. Two teams of doctors, including a neurosurgeon and a plastic surgeon, worked around the clock to separate the girls, taking turns with brief breaks.
Doctors say the girls have very distinct personalities.
Ganga, who has a cleft palate, is feistier and always hungry, while Jamuna is more shy. The twins were born in a poor, mountainous village in Nepal called Khalanga, where Maoist guerrillas are active. Their father, Bushan, helps his father in a small business, while their mother, Sandhya, is a kindergarten teacher. The young couple, in their 20s, have kept almost constant vigil at the hospital, taking brief breaks to pray at a Hindu temple. The hospital has waived many of their charges, and national flag carrier Singapore Airlines paid for the girls, their parents and their grandfather to make the trip from Nepal.