Second head removed from baby girl

[elehhhhna]

Second head removed from baby girl
CAIRO: Egyptian doctors said they removed a second head from a 10-month-old girl suffering from one of the rarest birth defects in an operation yesterday. Abla El Alfy, a consultant in paediatric intensive care, said at the hospital in Benha, near Cairo, that Manar Maged was in a serious but improving condition after the procedure to treat her for craniopagus parasiticus - a problem related to that of conjoined twins linked at the skull.

"The operation was a complete success," said hospital director Nazif Hefnawi.

Manar had been joined at the cranium to a poorly formed baby that consisted of a head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth and neck, but no body. The head that was removed from Manar had been capable of smiling and blinking but not independent life, doctors said.



http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=104813&Sn=WORL&IssueID=27337

[inslee08]

1. Very creepy

"The head that was removed from Manar had been capable of smiling and blinking but not independent life, doctors said."

Was the other head a separate consciousness? If so, then some ethical questions are raised. This whole thing is just really (for lack of a better word) freaky.

[Bluebear]

4. "capable of smiling and blinking but not independent life"

Surely sounds like a separate consciousness. I'm speechless.

[readmoreoften]

2. whoa

but how is that different than a conjoined twin where one is not viable. Does the head think and feel in addition to smile and blink? I mean, clearly, the head's gotta go, right? But why call it a head and not a baby without a body? Just wonderin'

[raysr]

3. Depleted Uranium

[nostamj]

11. very well could be...

i've seen too many of THOSE photos....

[NickB79]

26. This happened in Egypt

You're off by a good 500+ miles, as the closest depleted uranium shells were used in Iraq. At that distance, there is more risk from lead in the drinking water causing this than DU.

[nostamj]

5. and there I was thinking the school nurse on SouthPark

was way over the top...

very very bizarre...

[merh]

6. I betcha that story makes the fundies heads explode.

Was the second head a life, did it's removal constitute a murder, did it get a death certificate of its own?

[KG]

7. anybody ever see the movie 'twin falls idaho?'

neat movie about ethics and cojoined humans.

[rzemanfl]

8. What would the folks with "Choose Life" license plates say about

this one?

[rodeodance]

15. I find the photo very subdueing--how terrible for the family

[Must_B_Free]

9. I can't believe the mother chose to abort the head

her second daughter, snuffed out.
Its a sad day for heads.

[Journeyman]

10. What was it Paul Simon sang, "These are the days of miracle and wonder"...

n/t

[SmokingJacket]

12. Next time warn me please.

That picture is going to haunt me for some time.

[Bunny]

13. What's really weird is that there is a separate twin to this girl.

So, were these girls triplets that went horribly awry? It is so peculiar, isn't it?

[Blue-Jay]

14. I don't even know what to say about this.

Heartbreaking story.

[Vektor]

17. Me either -

It's so sad, strange, and unusual, I really don't even know how to respond.

[housewolf]

16. Soooo... pro-lifers....

is this not murder?

[REP]

18. Is That An Acardic Teratoma?

Teratomas are rare, and acardiacs are rare.

[REP]

28. Answering My Own Question: Yes, It Is

It is a failed monozygotic twin. It may have a poorly developed brain, but it obviously has no heart or any other major organ. They occur about 1:35000 pregnancies.

[Jonathan_Hoag]

19. So if they left it ...

would she be like a female Zaphod Beeblebrox, or what?

SCNR

[JI7]

20. was the head able to blink and smile through the heart

of the full baby ? i think i have heard of conjoined twins at the body who share a heart and other body organs but separate heads.

and there have been conjoined twins at the head but both always had their own full bodies.

but i have never heard of something like this so how was the attached head able to blink and smile ? could it make noises and cry ? was it a result of nerves connected between the heads ?

whatever it is, this is very interesting. but it's very sad for the parents.

[WLKjr]

21. from the way 'it' looked, I would be willing to bet

it was the nerves from the twin. ^ I use the term 'it' ^ loosely. But I would say this is a side effect of depleted uranium.

[elehhhhna]

31. I think you're right--there was a man in China who wore his extra head

(on top of his normal head) for years--no extra brain but the extra face chewed and smiled when the normal head did. He lived with his Mother in a remote village--they'd urged her to let him dye when he was born. When in his 30's IIRC some Docs on Mission found him and did the surgery. PBS had a special about it.

Back with pics if I can find them.



"Chang Tzu Ping of China was born with a second face, consisting of a mouth with a rudimentary tongue and several teeth, a bristly patch of scalp, and vestiges of eyes, nose, and ears. The throat of the second mouth was imperforate and the lips could not move independently, but when Chang opened his mouth, the second mouth opened too. In his small village he was called 'Two-Faced Chang' and feared by local children, who thought him to be a monster. However, when he was around 40 years old, some American soldiers in China discovered him and brought him back to the United States. He had the second face removed surgically and returned to live the remainder of his life in his native village."
http://phreeque.tripod.com/chang_tzu_ping.html

[ultraist]

24. The head had a brain, that's why it could think, smile and blink

The baby's heart pumped blood to both heads. Emotions are brain responses and apparently, this was a fully developed brain that had relied on the body of the twin for life.

I've never seen a picture of a two headed baby. This likey is DU. How sad. That poor baby never grew a body.

[REP]

27. Acardius anceps (chorangiopagus parasiticus)

This kind of defect of twinning is rare, but not necessarily a result of depleted uraniam. See http://medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/PEDHTML/PED026.html for a non-viable example.

"That poor baby" was a failed monozygotic twin. The teratoma (literally, "monster tumor" or in this case, the acardiac twin) failed to develop properly. The "poor baby"in question is the child who is having the teratoma removed from her skull.

[Catchawave]

22. So sad....

...a hug your children sort of story :(

[DawgHouse]

23. Poor little baby

:-(

[thinkingwoman]

25. this is the most disturbing picture I have ever seen

I've seen a lot of things and consider myself pretty tough...able to detach (which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it I guess), but that is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

I don't think I'll ever forget it.

[DistressedAmerican]

29. Thanks for posting the image.

I had read the article early today and had been wondering ever since I read it. The description I read was very vauge.

[REP]

30. Here's Another One - Dominican Republic, 2004

Baby with two heads dies after surgery

An infant girl born with a second head bled to death after complex surgery to remove her partially formed twin, her parents and doctors said.

A medical team completed the 11-hour operation in Santo Domingo,the Dominican Republic, on Friday night and said eight-week-old Rebeca Martinez died seven hours later, on Saturday morning.

Doctors had warned after the surgery that the girl would be at great risk of infection or haemorrhaging.

"We knew this was a very risky surgery, and now we accept what God has decided," Rebeca's father, 29-year-old Franklin Martinez, said at a news conference with his wife. "Rebeca is no longer with us physically, but no one will forget her."

The family buried Rebeca in a private funeral on Saturday evening.

The girl lost a lot of blood in the operation, which apparently caused her to suffer a heart attack, said Jorge Lazareff, the lead surgeon. Friends and family donated almost 15 litres of blood for surgeons to use during the operation.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/08/1076175037068.html?oneclick=true