Australian doctors hope to save conjoined twins in Papua New Guinea

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A team of Australian doctors flew to Papua New Guinea and assessed a rare set of conjoined twins.  Both are still alive despite fears they would not make it this far, and the family is hoping to send them overseas for treatment.

Transcript

00:00It's feeding time for brothers Tom and Sawong.

00:06The rare conjoined twins were born six weeks ago in remote Papua New Guinea

00:10and are receiving care at a private hospital in Port Moresby.

00:14The ABC has been given exclusive access to visit them.

00:17It's very limited coming here, people coming in here, mainly to control the infection.

00:23The boys are joined at the lower abdomen and share a single liver and parts of their gastrointestinal tract

00:29and Tom has a congenital heart defect.

00:32The surgery needed to separate them can't be performed in PNG.

00:36Staying where we are is certain death. Hi babies.

00:40Jurgen Roo, a pilot who flew the boys to Port Moresby, has been fighting for them to be sent overseas.

00:46Love you both.

00:48The public hospital where they were previously being treated said it was too risky to transfer them to Australia,

00:54saying it was highly unlikely both twins would survive surgery.

00:58But now the boys have been moved to a private hospital

01:01and a team of doctors from Sydney have come to assess whether separating them is possible.

01:06Doctors from the Sydney Children's Hospital declined our request for an interview,

01:10with the hospital saying that their priority is gathering information and meeting with the parents

01:15and their visit doesn't guarantee the twins will be transferred to Australia.

01:19But those supporting the family aren't giving up hope.

01:23We've been talking to three different countries to hopefully take on the twins.

01:27It's one body but two souls and let's try and save these two souls.

01:31Fighting against the odds.

01:33They are survivors and they want to live.

01:35They are survivors and they want to live.

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