Turkish conjoined twin return after successful op in UK

LONDON

Turkish conjoined twin brothers Yiğit and Derman came back to Turkey on June 10 after more than six months of medical operations and healing in the British capital London to separate them.

The two-year-old twins, who were born with their heads joined to each other, were taken back to Turkey in an ambulance plane sent by the Turkish Health Ministry.

Yiğit and Derman, sons of Turkish couple Fatma and Ömer Evrensel, were sent to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for the rare operation by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan last December.

Evrensel said the operation was performed by Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, a pediatric neurosurgeon of Kashmiri background and craniofacial surgeon David Dunaway in one of Britain's largest children's hospitals.

"We are happy to be able to go back to Turkey with healthy children," said father Evrensel.

He said they, as the boys' parents, had never fallen into despair and that God helped them.

Evrensel recounted that they had been asked to abort the pregnancy before the birth once the twins' condition became clear but "we never agreed to that as they were given to us by Allah."

"We were ready to live with that condition, but Allah showed us a path, gave us a remedy- we are thankful."

Yiğit and Derman were born on June 21, 2018, and will celebrate their second birthday later this month.