Laleh Bijani had to give up her dream of being a journalist because her twin sister, Ladan, wanted to be a lawyer.
The 27-year-old sisters, who were born joined together at the skull, said on Tuesday they hope a risky operation by a team of Singapore doctors will be the key to them leading happy — and separate — lives.
The twins have completed a series of X-rays and scans since arriving on November 20 in Singapore from their home in Tehran, Iran, and are now undergoing psychological evaluations, doctors said.
The sisters will find out after toward the end of the year whether the surgery can go ahead. The decision cannot come soon enough, they told reporters.
Settling for a law degree over journalism is just example of the sacrifices both have had to make during their 27 years together. Even sisterly love has its limits.
”If the situation goes on for one or two years, we wouldn’t be able to stand it,” said Ladan, the more extroverted sister, speaking through a translator.
”We are two completely separate individuals stuck to each other, with different world views and lifestyles,” she said.
The sisters — who have separate bodies and limbs but are fused at the head — wore identical olive pant suits and shared an Islamic headscarf as they spoke cheerfully at the Raffles Hospital. Ladan said they have never felt self conscious about their appearance.
Laleh hopes the surgery will allow her to pursue her dream of working as a journalist in Tehran, while Ladan wants to earn a graduate degree and move back home with their parents in Shiraz.
Wishing to follow different paths, the twins began investigating ways they could be separated. They traveled to Germany in 1996, but specialists said any surgery could kill one or both of them because they share an artery supplying blood to the brain.
Ladan said they became more determined last year when they heard a team of Singaporean doctors successfully separated two Nepalese infant girls who were similarly joined at the head. Keith Goh, the lead neurosurgeon who operated on the Nepalese girls, said doctors had completed X-rays, computerised tomography
and magnetic resonance imaging scans.
Goh’s team is now devising a strategy for how to separate the twins. They have ”two separately functioning brain units encased in one bony sheath,” Goh said.
The women said they feel no anxiety about the operation and are optimistic about their futures.
”We believe it’s all in God’s hands,” Ladan said. ”After God, we are relying on the team of doctors.” – Sapa-AP