Can't risk traveling to Delhi for op: Conjoined twins' kin

August 06, 2012 13:01 IST

The family of 16-year-old twins Saba and Farah Shakeel is not willing to take them to the New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences for examination.

The Supreme Court had on July 30 directed the Bihar government to bring conjoined twins Saba and Farah Shakeel to AIIMS in an air ambulance within 10 days.

A bench observed that the state government should bear the expense for bringing the twins to Delhi for treatment.

"We respect the Supreme Court's order but we are not in a position to take them to AIIMS for their treatment. It is up to the Bihar government to help us by arranging for their medical examination and their treatment in Patna itself instead of Delhi," Rabia Khatoon, the mother of Saba and Farah said.

Khatoon said that they are not interested in taking them to AIIMS, as they will not opt for an operation. "My family will not take

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the risk of operating them "she said.

She said that the state government should provide them with a fix monthly amount of nutritious food. "Saba and Farah are not getting nutritious food because of our financial crunch. We are poor people, how can we spend our earnings on the two of them and make the others starve," Khatoon said.

On the direction of the apex court, the central government formed a three-member team of doctors to examine the possibility of surgically separating the sisters.

Soon after the apex court order, Saba and Farah's father Mohammad Shakeel said that if one of them would not survive after the operation "we will not go for it". "Our stand is clear, we are not ready to lose one of them to save the other," he said.

Doctors say that Saba and Farah will have to undergo a series of surgeries before they can be separated.

M I Khan in Patna

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All India Institute of Medical Sciences Farah Shakeel AIIMS Saba Rabia Khatoon