NHRC wants AIIMS report over shifting Odisha twins

New Delhi: The  National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked authorities at AIIMS to take appropriate action on a petition that seeks to prevent the shifting of conjoined twins  separated after complicated surgeries from the premier medial institute  here to its branch in Bhubaneswar.

The petition filed before the Commission by Supreme Court advocate and human rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy said the Bhubaneswar institute did not have the infrastructure essential for the care and treatment of the twins, Jaga and Balia.

The NHRC has asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for a report on the matter.

“It is requested that an Action Taken Report (ATR) be sent to the Commission within four weeks from the date of the receipt of this letter,” NHRC said to the Director of AIIMS in a letter yesterday.

The petition said the boys from Milipada village in Odisha’s Kandhamal region were likely to be sent back to the state in the second week of March.

But the Odisha government was not “equipped” to treat the 31-month-old boys who underwent surgery at AIIMS here for the  separation, it said.

“The state government is not well equipped for their treatment in the state. Had that been the case, the operation could have been done in the state itself,” Mr Tripathy said in the recent petition.

It mentioned that the health condition of the twins, who have been staying at AIIMS since the operations along with their parents, had to improve further before they could be sent to Odisha.

“Once they ... (are) sent back to Odisha, where the infrastructure and ancillary and incidental facilities are lacking, there shall be an imminent threat to their lives,” it said.

“The facts and circumstances of the case also pose questions regarding the right to health and basic human rights of not only the kids but of the entire family,” Mr  Tripathy said adding that unless the Commission intervenes, the “poor, uneducated Scheduled Tribe family shall be deprived of justice”.

The petition further pointed out that only Jaga was stable, while Balia was not and that the twin’s parents had requested the Odisha government to ask the authorities at the premier hospital to allow the children to stay in the hospital for some more months until they were fully fit to be shifted.

“Therefore, you are kindly requested to direct the director AIIMS, to ensure healthy stay of the twins with proper health checkups with possible care at the apex hospital till they get fully fit,” Mr  Tripathy said in the petition.

On February 26, a team of doctors from Odisha visited the twins to assess if they could be taken to the AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, for follow up treatment.

Jaga and Balia are craniopagus conjoined twins — joined at the head — which doctors said was a very rare occurrence. They were successfully separated after a 21-hour-long surgery at AIIMS in New Delhi in October last year. The first phase of the surgery on the conjoined twins was performed on August 28 last.