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Patna, Jan 2:A woman has given birth to conjoined twins in a Bihar town. The delivery was normal, a hospital source said Friday.
Mehnaz Khatoon, in her 20s, a resident of Bar village in Gaya district, about 125 km from here, was admitted to a government hospital Dec 31 night with labour pains and delivered the Siamese twins Thursday.
The two girls have their heads, hands, and genitalia separated from each other but are joined to each other waist downwards.
After news spread in the neighbourhood, a large number of people thronged the hospital to have a look.
Conjoined twins occur in only one in 300,000 births across the world.
Another pair of conjoined twins, Saba and Farah, live in the state capital Patna. They were in the news in 2005, when Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then crown prince of Abu Dhabi, decided to help them after seeing their photograph in an Indian newspaper.
After Sheikh Mohammed announced he would bear the entire medical expenses of the operation to separate the girls, estimated to cost a million US dollars, the twins were examined at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi.
American neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson, who also came to India to study them, agreed to perform the risky operation assisted by Indian doctors. But the surgery has not taken place yet.
Although the twins have distinct brains and are neurologically and psychologically normal, only one of them has kidneys.
However, the delay in surgery has affected their health, as they are suffering several problems and etting weaker by the day, family sources said.
comments...
Birth of a conjoined twin is of course a matter of surprise for the family as well as for the community, i can not say it is a good news or a bad news for the family, but for the treating physician or the surgeon is a challenge,
Birth or death is in hands of allmighty God,but facing such circumstance is a daunting task for every one, it reminds me of the history of the medical field, when the world's first siamese twin Chang and Eng Bunker were born in 1811 in a small community 45 miles from bangkok, to a half chinese, half-siamese mother and a half chinese father.
These twins were united at the umbilicus by a bridge of tissue, and never underwent surgery and lived together for 63 years. They immigrated to USA, married identical twin sisters and founded big families. Chang was the father of ten,Eng of nine children. they died in 1874, within half an hour of each other.
Since then , "Siamese twin" is the best known term for the conjoined twins all over the wrold. even today , the birth of conjoined twins is generally recieved with emotion and fascination. A succesfull separation is still a rare event. Many succesfull surgical separation has been performed arround the world, the most publisised surgery was performed here in Saudi Arabia on 8th march 2006, when Hafsa and Elham, were separated after 22 hours of surgery.
The question arises how these new arrivals will be treated or looked after in a state like BIhar, where even a common surgery costs a lot to the public, inspite of the fact that there best possible surgical hands are available i the state but the health facilities are so poor that even a proper pre operative work up can not be done in the state, will the state government or any NGO come forward for these two unlucky neonates to separate them and provide them a helping hand??
I request Bihar Times to take the initiative.
Dr Anwer Ahsan
Dept of Pediatric Surgery,
MCH, Dammam, KSA
aa_drpedsurg@yahoo.com
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