Conjoined twins: SC not happy with Nitish Kumar-led Bihar Govt

The Supreme Court on Friday expressed displeasure against the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government for its "perpetual absence" during adjudication of the matter relating to the conjoined twins of Patna for whom the efforts are being made to provide medical and financial aid.

"The state of Bihar is perpetually absent," a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra remarked while deliberating the issue of providing medical aid and financial help for the conjoined twins.

The bench asked Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra to look into the issue of providing grants to them.

It posted the matter for further hearing on November 5, asking the Bihar government to come forward and assist the court on the issue of providing medical and financial aid for 15-year-old conjoined twins Saba and Farah Saleem.

The bench took on record the report of the specially- constituted three-member AIIMS team which had visited Patna on October 21 to examine them.

The report said the family members of the conjoined twins were averse to their medical examinations which included "risks involved in investigations."

It noted that according to the the patients' brother, one of the twins does not have kidneys, and they have one common sagittal sinus (biggest vein) between their brains.

The doctors, however, said "there is no evidence/investigation to either prove or disprove these statements made by the brother."

The report said "the statements made by the brother regarding kidneys and sagittal sinus also need extensive investigations which will have to include CT scan, MRI angiography ... and investigations for other organ functions and can be performed by experts at AIIMS.

The panel comprising professors M V Padma (Neurology), A Chaturvedi (Neuroanaesthesia) and S S Kale (Neurosurgery) said "these investigations have their own risks" and "the parents and the brother are not willing to take any risk including the risks involved in investigations."

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