Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha, whose conjoined heads were separated in an unprecedented 97 hour operation in Singapore in 2001, now lie sick and virtually immobile in a cramped apartment in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. They will be five years old next month.

The girls do not have a hard cover on the tops of their heads, which are protected only by skin and hair, according to the Straits Times newspaper in Singapore.

Singapore doctors had planned a second operation to install a protective lining in the twins’ heads, but no date has been fixed.

They are cared for by their mother and grandparents. Their father went back to their home village two years ago and has not returned.

Jamuna can only pull herself along the ground with her left arm and leg because her right limbs are weak. Her sister, Ganga, is unable to sit up, lift her head or talk.

Dr Lee Wei Ling, daughter of Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew, said in a letter to the Straits Times that the surgery should not have happened because the children were left with expected disabilities, and their family faces a tremendous burden in caring for them.

“The operation put Singapore on the world map, and the members of the surgical team were hailed as heroes,” wrote Lee Wei Ling, senior consultant of paediatric neurology at the National Neuroscience Institute. “But at the end of the day, to me and to the family, the operation was a mistake.”

Lee was not involved in the surgery at Singapore General Hospital, and said she advised her neurosurgeon not to participate.

“I advised him against it on the basis that even if the operation were a technical success and he gained worldwide fame, his responsibility was the ultimate welfare of the patients,” she said.

“They would have died soon if the operation was not carried out, and the young parents, after a period of grieving, could have carried on with life and probably would have more children who are normal,” Lee wrote.

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