NEWS: Doctors Remove "Second Head" From Baby, page 1

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 11:14 AM

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After months of planning and preparation, a team of Egyptian doctors at a hospital near Cairo have completed a 13 hour long operation to remove a second head from a 10 month old infant girl named "Manar". The condition is very rare, but occurs when one conjoined twin fails to fully develop in the womb.

story.news.yahoo.com
BENHA, Egypt (Reuters) - 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 Saturday.

Abla el-Alfy, a consultant in paediatric intensive care, told Reuters 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.

Alfy said the 13-strong surgical team separated Manar's brain from the conjoined organ in small stages, cutting off the blood supply to the extra head while preventing increased blood flow to Manar's heart, which would have risked cardiac arrest.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Doctors are often forced to make life and death decisions in the case of conjoined twins, but this must have been a harrowing experience for everyone involved. Throughout the article they refer to the second head as "the parasite" or "the organ", maybe for their own sake as well as ours.

[edit on 19-2-2005 by mythatsabigprobe]

Umbrax

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 11:20 AM

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Every time I see conjoined twins it amazes me. It really reminds me how lucky I am with my two kids. Surgeons who successfully preform these separations should get some kind of medal.

marg6043

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 11:44 AM

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Well it seems that the other head was not actually a fully developed child so it would not have been able to live on its own it was feeding from the other child.

mythatsabigprobe

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 12:20 PM

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Originally posted by marg6043
Well it seems that the other head was not actually a fully developed child so it would not have been able to live on its own it was feeding from the other child.

Yes, in some ways this would be easier than deciding which twin should live based on medical probabilities. Still this was a very well developed head with brain function and it must have been a hard thing to do.

CmptrN3rd5

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 12:49 PM

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Was the "parasite" even alive though?

hollyjo

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 01:07 PM

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that's what i was wondering. i mean.... did it just..hang there with it's eyes closed all the time, or...was it..someone?

mythatsabigprobe

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 01:17 PM

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Yes, it was alive and aware. Earlier news articles mentioned it was responsive like any normal baby. There is actually a second (or third if you like) twin that's healthy and normal.

hollyjo

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 01:22 PM

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wow.

but.. i dunno.. depending on how hindering it was to the kid it was attached to, i think i'd be like "can we keep it?" ...
..i mean.. it was alive..with it's own personality, correct? it just couldn't support itself..
for some reason after reading about this i can't get the brain guy from the teenage mutant ninja turtles out of my head. used to watch it when i was little..

picard_is_actually_a_grey

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 01:26 PM

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sick!

Picard

CmptrN3rd5

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 01:35 PM

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That brain guy kicked ass! I had the toy of it and it came with that robot thing he had too! lol

theRiverGoddess

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 03:08 PM

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Originally posted by CmptrN3rd5
Was the "parasite" even alive though?

Well, sharing bloodflow, it MUST have been 'alive' in a sense. Sheesh though....to think MAYBE that head had its OWN brain and thoughts would be horrifying to cut it off......of course there was no way at all for the head to live on its own.
OMG imagine if it could talk??????

WHAT would a perant DO in that kind of situation

I am just so gratefull for my healthy NORMAL son........the desicions concerning conjoined twins is just to difficult to imagine.....Thank heavens for medical personell to give advise in such matters.

Jehosephat

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 03:10 PM

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reminds me of Zaphod

Veltro

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 03:12 PM

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Originally posted by CmptrN3rd5
That brain guy kicked ass! I had the toy of it and it came with that robot thing he had too! lol

Krang! I had him too heh.

Anyway that's got to be pretty terrible, I mean it was blinking and looking around and stuff...wow. Evertime I come on ATS I get another story that in some way strengthens my choice to never have kids.

With pollution and stuff I wonder if rare accurances like this might become more common?

marg6043

posted on Feb, 19 2005 @ 03:32 PM

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People you are so morbid is funny, not the head was probably imitating the other child movements but it was robing the child of her needed blood to support her body.

The head could not feed or it did not have organs just a brain with activity but not independent.

Yes it was a parasite, and eventually it would have killed the child.