The surgery to separate the conjoined brothers, Jagga and Kalia, from Kandhamal district in Odisha has been registered in the Limca Book of Records. The surgery was performed by doctors at AIIMS Hospital in Delhi. This successful surgery has been included in the 2020 edition of the Limca Book of Records.
According to reports, the Limca Book of Records has recognized this as the first operation of its kind in the country. The surgery involved a team of 125 doctors and paramedical staff. The team was led by Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra and Dr. Deepak Kumar Gupta.
At the time of the surgery in 2017, Jagga and Kalia were approximately 28 months old. This highly complex surgery was completed in two stages. The first surgery was performed on August 28, 2017, and the second on October 25, 2017.
Prof. Mahapatra stated that it was a significant challenge. This was the first surgery in India to separate children conjoined at the skull. During the procedure, a vein was taken from the AIIMS vein bank and implanted into Kalia’s head, as both children’s heads shared a single vein. He explained that this was the world’s first vein grafting surgery.
Advice was also sought from Prof. James T. Goodrich, a pediatric neurosurgeon at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who had previously performed similar surgeries. Goodrich is considered a global expert in this field.
Prof. Mahapatra mentioned that three dummy operations were conducted before the actual surgery to ensure there was no room for error. In the past 33 years, only 12 or 13 similar surgeries have been performed globally. After the surgery, Jagga and Kalia had to stay at AIIMS, Delhi, for nearly two years. They were sent back to Odisha in September 2019.
