Deccan Chronicle

Parents ‘abandon’ Veena, Vani

Family of Veena, Vani want state government to take care of girls

- DC CORRESPOND­ENT HYDERABAD, JUNE 21

Hyderabad: Mr Naga and Ms Maragani Murali, parents of conjoined twins Veena and Vani, on Tuesday approached deputy CM Kadiam Srihari and requested the government to take care of the twins. The parents are not willing to take them home despite an All India Institute of Medical Sciences report stating that surgery to separate them would be life threatenin­g.

Mr Naga and Ms Maragani Murali, parents of conjoined twins Veena and Vani, on Tuesday approached deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari and requested the government to take care of the twins.

The parents are not willing to take them home despite an All India Institute of Medical Sciences report stating that surgery to separate them would be life threatenin­g.

Mr Murali petitioned the government stating that they could not take care of the girls and the government should attend to them and also provide a house for them in Hyderabad and employment.

Doctors in Niloufer Hospital said that they had been waiting for a week for the parents to give consent for a future course of action. Senior doctors had given five days to the family to decide as the girls are now 13 and can no longer be kept in the hospital.

Veena and Vani are intelligen­t and doing fairly well in studies. A tutor teaches the girls in the hospital. Ms Ayama Padmavati, who has been taking care of them for the last three years said, “The girls are smart, intelligen­t and discipline­d. They are well-mannered and listen to the hospital staff. Now as they are 13 years old the doctors want them to be shifted.”

Two to three ayahs take care of the twins in shifts and attend to all their needs right from food, clothing to even disciplini­ng them when needed.

Dr Ramesh Reddy, pro- fessor and head of the department of paediatric surgery, said, “Due to their increasing age it is becoming difficult to keep them in the hospital. The girls need to go to their home or they require to be rehabilita­ted in a proper home where they can be well looked after.”

Other doctors said that they had approached the best surgeons in the world for their separation but they all said surgery was risky.

Meanwhile the twin’s parents, whenever approached by government authoritie­s, have cited their inability to take care of the girls.

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