One of the conjoined twins who were flown to Sydney From Papua New Guinea for urgent surgery has died. Doctors Worked for seven hours to separate the babies.
00:00Conjoined twin boys Tom and Sawong in the moments before the operation to keep them alive.
00:09Not even two months old, the small, precious cargo was urgently airlifted from Papua New Guinea.
00:15Opening dice!
00:17Born in a remote part of PNG, joined at the abdomen, Tom and Sawong were flown to Sydney for the complex and highly risky surgery.
00:25An operation brought forward as Tom's condition worsened.
00:29They had to call in people who were off duty for the weekend and they got a team together.
00:36Tom didn't survive.
00:38Seven hours into the surgery Tom was separated from Sawong and as expected he passed on soon after.
00:48Pilot Jürgen Roo helped the family get to Australia.
00:52It's been a roller coaster and obviously since Tom passed on and they were given the opportunity to hold him, they are on the bottom of the roller coaster.
01:04Baby Sawong is still critical but he's slowly recovering. One life lost but another saved.
01:11And that's something that we are trying to celebrate amongst the grief.
01:15The family of Tom and Sawong say it took eight weeks to navigate getting a referral.
01:20They now hope that their experience will help make it easier for parents facing a similar dilemma
01:25so that at risk babies born in PNG can receive treatment overseas more quickly in the future.
01:31The eight weeks to refer Tom and Sawong in future with a proper referral pathway shouldn't be eight days even.
01:38In what could prove to be Tom and Sawong's enduring legacy.
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