Bangalore : November 07,  2007 – The two year child Lakshmi, who had parasiatic conjoined twin, has been successfully operated upon; the surgery took 27 hours for a team of doctors to complete and she is still under observation for 72 hours.

"The operation on Lakshmi has been successfully completed. She is stable and has been shifted to the ICU where she will be closely monitored for the next 48 to 72 hours which will be critical," Dr Sharan Patil, the paediatric surgeon who headed the team that operated upon Lakshmi told PTI.

Lakshmi's parents Shambu and Poonam who had travelled all the way from Bihar for the operation are "very happy and relieved. However, the fact that the complicated and risky surgery has been successfully completed, is still sinking in," he said.

The parents will be allowed to meet Lakshmi, who has been put on ventilator, for a few moments in the afternoon today, Patil said.
"The surgery which began at 7 am on Tuesday was completed at about 10 am on Wednesday. We were able to take away the parasitic twin at around 12.15 midnight. We then had to reconstruct the pelvic ring and it got over on Wednesday morning," Patil said.

He extended the credit for the successful surgery to "the total coordination between the anaesthetic, paediatric, neurosurgery, orthopaedic and micro vascular teams, who were present throughout the marathon surgery".

Patil said, the teams were expecting abnormal anatomy and careful study of each organ was carried out before they proceeded.
"A major and critical step of separating the spines was achieved on Tuesday," Patil said.

Though Lakshmi's blood volume had to be changed twice, utmost care was taken to minimise the need for blood transfusion, he said.
Good wishes and prayers poured in for the girl not only from Bangalore but from all over the country.

"It has been an amazing and tremendously satisfying experience for us," Patil said.

"However, we are still not ready to celebrate as she will be in the critical zone for the next 48 to 72 hours," he said.