Russian surgeons make wonders

Two female Siam twins have been successfully separated in Russia.
The two girls’ bodies below the waist grew together. Initially, German medics offered their assistance, but later they decided not to take a risk. Russian surgeons operated on the girls, and they both survived. Siam twins abroad die after the surgeries of this kind.

On June 1 Russian First Channel broadcast documentary “Zita and Gita. One year later” by Elena Malysheva, the host of “Health” program on Russian TV.   The documentary reveals shocking human drama.

Sisters Rezakhanov’s were born in a small village in Kyrgyzstan. Their parents abandoned them after the girls were born. The parents had other kids and could hardly co-exist with the other fellow-villagers if they accept the Siam twins.

The twins were placed in the boarding school to separate them from other people. People tried to expel the two creatures from life, but the girls still strived for as the sprouts trampled down. First, they were crawling on the floor on their hands, they were hobbling on one leg and one prosthetic leg (each of the girls got only one leg after the surgery). They want to study, to see their parents, brother and sisters, they even dream of … getting married and having children. Amazing lust for life and good lesson for many of us.

I was crying when watching the documentary. These two girls look like they have wings of hope, and they make you look at everything from a different outlook.

I asked filmmaker Elena Malysheva why the final of the documentary is so sad. Why will the girls be placed in Dmitrovsky orphanage and not in the family they are eager to be with?

”Please do not condemn the girls’ mother and father”, said Elena Malysheva. “Today placing the girls in the orphanage is a better option. The matter is not only about quality medical treatment which the girls would not have in the village. They will not survive in the village where people live by physical work and all children sow and plow. This environment will not accept them.

We have to think what kind of people we are provided that every year more and more orphanages appear in Russia, and there are more and more children in them”…

Oleg Shapovalov