Prayer vigil for cojoined twins

THE Pope has been asked to lead a special prayer vigil as surgeons prepare to separate conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna.

A team of surgeons and support staff from the Royal Children's Hospital is making final preparations for surgery.

It will be the most complicated operation undertaken in Australia.

Next week's surgery will be the ninth and final operation in a long path to separate the Bangladeshi twins, who are joined at the top of their heads and share vital blood vessels and brain tissue.

Surgeons have already separated many of the blood vessels and much of the brain tissue shared by the sisters.

Two small sections of their brains as well as their skulls and skin at the top of their heads will be split during a marathon operation involving dozens of specialists. The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne will reveal details of the operation on Friday, provided no complications arise this week.

Pope Benedict XVI has been asked to lead a prayer vigil from the Vatican and Australian religious leaders of all faiths are also being asked to pray.

Children First Foundation chief executive officer Margaret Smith asked the public to light a candle of hope in support of the surgical team.

Father Kevin Mogg - who has advised the twins' guardian Moira Kelly throughout the process and helped make the decision to attempt a separation - said the Vatican had been asked to lead the prayer vigil. Catholic leaders from around Australia had offered immediate support.

"It is a critical time now in the lives of these children, so we have asked them to get the people throughout their diocese to pray for these kids and conduct prayer vigils and they have been responsive straight away," he said. "I hope people of all denominations or any faith might be willing to include the girls in their prayers."

Father Mogg first met Ms Kelly when she was doing charity work in New York's Bronx district 25 years ago. He said her courage to give children from around the world a better life was never more apparent than in her devotion to Trishna and Krishna.

"Since the twins have been here, it has been a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week commitment for Moira," Fr Mogg said. "It has been a huge thing for her and in those original meetings with the Royal Children's and all the specialists, it was her own courage and determination that gave these kids a chance at life.

"There was no doubt that if the separation was not going to be done, these children would not have survived.

"She has been a person of conviction and hope and she knew this was the right thing to do."

To support the work of Children First Foundation, visit www.childrenfirstfoundation.com to make a donation.

(Edit:Ruby)