M A I N   N E W S

Goodbye sisters!
Twins’ struggle ends in death

Neurosurgeon Keith Goh (C), head of the surgical team which operated on the twins, attends a news conference with Dr Ben Carson of the US (R) and Dr Loo Choon Yong at Raffles Hospital in Singapore on Tuesday. A step-sister of the twins, Golnaz Safaian, watches an old home video of her step-sisters riding a bicycle, on Tuesday. Members of the Iranian community react after the death of the conjoined Bijani twins at Raffles Hospital in Singapore on Tuesday. — Reuters photos

Singapore, July 8
Neurosurgeons separated 29-year-old Iranian twins born joined at the head after two days of delicate surgery, but both sisters died today shortly after their operation. 

The hospital announced Ladan Bijani’s death, and a few hours later, a nurse involved in the surgery said her sister Laleh had died.

“Everyone upstairs is crying,” said the nurse, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 

“We treated them like family because they had been here for seven months,” she added.

Hospital officials did not immediately officially announce the second death.

Earlier, doctors said Ladan died after they were unable to stabilise her condition.

“As the separation was coming to a close, a lot of blood was lost. The twins were subsequently in a critical state,” said Raffles hospital spokesman Dr Prem Kumar.

The risky, marathon separation procedure began on Sunday. 

Before the operation, doctors had warned that the surgery could kill one or both of the twins, or leave them brain-dead.

The brains of Ladan and Laleh Bijani were separate, but were stuck together after years of lying alongside one another.

Dr Prem Kumar had warned that controlling the bleeding and moving the twins from a seated position on to separate beds would be a big challenge, and that the condition of either twin would remain largely unknown until they woke up after surgery. — AP

Nepali twins Ganga (L), on the lap of her grandfather Arjun Shrestha, and Jamuna, once joined at the head, are stable two years after surgeons in Singapore separated their fused skulls, but neither can walk yet, a doctor and family members said on Tuesday. The twins, now three years old, have been recovering in Kathmandu since their surgery in 2001.  — Reuters photo

Operation stuns surgeon

Berlin, July 8
A neurosurgeon in Germany, who had declined to separate Iranian twins joined at the head, said today he was stunned the operation had been attempted and saddened by their deaths.

Madjid Samii, president of International Neuroscience Institute in Hanover, said he had reluctantly turned down the request of Laleh and Ladan Bijani.

He had decided after a month of examinations in 1988 that a shared vein that drained blood from their brain to their hearts meant the sisters’ chances of survival were almost nil.

“I said there was no chance of success, that it couldn’t be done,” added Samii (66). “At the very least one of the twins would have to be sacrificed. I said it would not be responsible to do it.” Samii said the conjoined twins were highly intelligent teenagers.

“I was very surprised when I heard the operation was going forward,” he said. “There have been medical advances, but the problem then was the same as now. There is only one vein”. — Reuters