Conjoined twins attached at the forehead are preparing for an operation to separate them, despite a high risk of death.
Joy and Joyce Magsino, aged 10, from Albay, were born with ‘angular frontal partial craniopagus’.
As we reported in September, their family appealed for help to pay more than five million pesos for life-changing surgery.
Their father Patrick Magsino, a 30-year-old market porter, and mother Jomarie, who works as a maid in Qatar, could see no way of raising the funds on their own.
At the time of the girls’ birth a local charity offered to pay for medical treatment, but withdrew their support after medics said the operation could be fatal.
Now, new pictures of the twins have been released showing them in a hospital in San Juan, east of Manila, undergoing tests in preparation for the risky operation.
It is not known who has helped fund the procedure.
Back in September, a spokesman for the family said: “The doctors said the operation would be quite risky as one nerve connects the girls and it would have to be connected within seconds or else one of them would die. That is when the foundation withdrew their support.”
Twins want to separate
Mr Magsino previously said: “We have been trying hard to organised the funds for the past five years after the doctors confirmed that the girls can be separated, but we haven’t been able to garner even one third of it so far.
“I am seeking help from hospitals in countries such as the UK, the US and India.
“I’d be open to any procedure where the safety of both my girls will be ensured.
“Also, expenses should be covered as well, because on my own I would never be able to afford their treatment.
“When the girls were born they were fed through a plastic tube but today they are playful.
“It has become hard to control them especially because they now want to be separated.
“The twins have developed a great sense of understanding, but they occasionally fight over doing their preferred activities.
“Joyce has a cleft lip and is the dominant of the two twins and usually manages to get her way in most situations.”