Odisha: Co-joined twins with 2 heads die a week after birth at Berhampur hospital
New Delhi: An extremely rare co-joined twin was born with 2 heads, 2 spines but a single torso died at the state-run MKCG Medical College in Odisha’s Berhampur. The twins had been born around a week back and doctors were trying their level best to save them, however to no avail.
The twins were born on October 11 and soon after birth they were diagnosed with dicephalic parapagus. The mother of the twin was a 22-year-old daily wage worker, who hailed from a remote village in Kandhamal district of the state.
The doctors said that this was the woman’s first pregnancy. They also aid that this was the first time that such a case had been reported at the hospital.
The MKCG Medical College and Hospital superintendent Sudeepa Dash, said that despite the best efforts by a team of doctors to save the co-joined twins, they died due to complex health issues.
The parents were in shock, said the doctors. After the twins died, they refused to take the body home. Reports later claimed that the Ganjam district administration intervened in the matter and sent the body to the village. Here, officials persuaded the couple to accept it and conduct the last rites, as per ritual.
The twins had been undergoing treatment at the hospital’s special newborn care unit, since birth.
The doctors tried to perform surgery on the twins to keep them alive, but did not succeed. One of the senior doctors at the Department of Paediatric Surgery, said that despite their best efforts, they could not save the babies, as they suffered from respiratory problems just a day after birth.
Talking about the babies, the doctors said that this was a male infant weighing 2.25 kgs at birth. It had 2 heads and 2 necks but a single torso and 2 spinal columns.
However, the babies had a single pair of arms and legs. It also just had a single liver and heart.
The infant also just had a single genitourinary tract, with 1 male external genitalia and an anal opening.
This was a case of Dicephalic parapagus. In this case, twins have 2 heads but a single body. Such cases occur once in 3 lakh births, said doctors. They added that chances of survival are very low.