KATHMANDU—One of two conjoined Nepalese twins separated in a marathon operation in Singapore seven years ago has died in Nepal's capital, doctors said Wednesday.

"Eight-year-old Ganga Shrestha died from respiratory problems Tuesday," said Basanta Pant, a neurosurgeon at the Kathmandu Model Hospital where she was being treated.

"Ganga had always been a little weaker than her sister Jamuna after the operation" to separate them, Pant added.

Ganga was admitted to the hospital on Monday. She was being treated in the intensive care unit for pneumonia and meningitis, the doctor said.

The twins were born with fused skulls. A team of neurosurgeons at Singapore General Hospital separated them in a 97-hour operation in 2001.

The surgeons waived their charges for the operation, which made international headlines. Singaporeans raised more than 660,000 dollars (now US$484,000) to help the babies.

The girls lived in Kathmandu with their parents after returning from Singapore.

"I will always remember her feisty spirit... At least now, her spirit is free of her disabled body," Singaporean neurosurgeon Keith Goh, one of the lead surgeons involved in the operation, told Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper.

The operation left Ganga with brain damage and Jamuna unable to walk, the newspaper said, adding that three years ago they returned to Singapore for additional treatment and then returned to Nepal.

Jamuna today drags herself around on her arms.

Schools in Kathmandu have refused to enroll her since part of her brain is still unprotected by bone, The Straits Times reported.

The newspaper quoted Jamuna's grandfather as saying she finds it hard to accept the death of her sister and cannot stop crying.