Patna, Jan 2 (IANS) 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.
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