A woman has given birth to a baby with two heads in a hospital in northern India.
The baby, or rather babies, are conjoined twins – two girls who have separate spinal cords, necks and heads but share the same set of organs and limbs.
Urmila Sharma, 28, from Haryana province did not know she had twins until two weeks before the birth because she could not afford to pay for ultrasound scans.
Doctors fear that the twins, who have a condition known as dicephalic parapagus, will be lucky to survive.
‘The parents are very distressed and we are helping the family the best we can,’ explained Doctor Shikha Malik, who delivered the babies.
Born via C-section at Cygnus JK Hindu hospital yesterday morning, doctors say the twins cannot be separated because they share so many key body parts.
‘We only came to know she was carrying conjoined twins after an ultrasound two weeks ago but it was too late to do anything by then,’ added Dr Malik.
There is hope however that the twins could survive and adapt to their condition thanks to the inspiration of Abigail and Brittany Hensel – twins with dicephalic parapagus in the US that have lived into their twenties.
Dr Malik explained: ‘Now the baby is born we will do our best to save her and we hope to operate once her condition is more stable.’
Conjoined twins are quite rare with an estimated prevalence of somewhere between 1:50,000 and 1:200,000 births.
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