Though congenital twins are often referred to as “Siamese twins,” the most astounding pair of congenital twins was born in India recently.
On October third, a 20 year old woman gave birth to a baby with two heads. In a remarkable turn of events, the parents did not even realize that the woman was pregnant with twins until it was time to give birth.
According to Dr. Jaiprakash who delivered the infants, the couple thought everything was going fine, so they did not see a doctor throughout the pregnancy. When she was in labor, the doctors finally realized that she was actually giving birth to conjoined twins, not a single infant.
The twins only weighed five pounds together when born, and they shared a single torso that contained two spines and two sets of internal organs. Despite these complications, the twins seemed otherwise healthy.
The doctors determined that it would be too risky to even try to separate the twins, and they told the parents that the children probably needed to remain in the hospital’s intensive care for a while.
Sadly, the parents ignored the doctor’s advice because the infants seemed so healthy. They decided to take the twins home, and they passed away shortly afterwards.
Despite being moderately healthy, the stress of being conjoined was too much for the infants’ lungs to deal with without medical help. Though it is possible the infants could have survived with medical care, they did not stand a chance without treatment and monitoring.
