TRAGIC! 24 HRS AFTER BIRTH, CONJOINED TWINS DIE DUE TO RESPIRATORY DISORDER

Conjoined twins born with two heads at Government Medical College of Ambejogai in Beed district, died due to respiratory disorder on Monday, within 24 hours of birth. Doctors said that this is most likely to be the only third case of live birth in babies diagnosed with dicephalic parapagus (two heads one torso).

Doctors from the hospital said that the twins, born on October 29, at 9.30pm were diagnosed with birth asphyxia (deprivation of oxygen) and respiratory complications at birth due to the internal organ complications.

“The incident itself is one in one lakh childbirths and only one-third of such babies survive,” said Dr Sudhir Deshmukh, Dean of Ambejogai GMC.

Doctors said that the children died on Monday afternoon due to respiratory failure and pulmonary hypoplasia. “The twins were kept on ventilators after birth because their lungs were not developed and one of the ba- bies was diagnosed with anencephaly (life-threatening brain and skull underdevelopment),” said doctors from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

Dr Deshmukh added the family being, farm laborers did not have enough money to conduct a sonography which could have revealed the condition of the foetus in time for an abortion. “The condition of the children was diagnosed only in the seventh month of gestation. By then the woman had passed the legal age of abortion,” he added.

Doctors said that in most of such cases, delay in diagnosis results in families having to go through the trouble of witnessing the death of the children.

The paediatrician said similar issue had taken place in the case of Mumbai conjoined twins who passed away four months after their birth. “Since the condition is not life-threatening to the mother, MTP act is not likely to allow abortion after the legal age of 20 weeks of gestation,” said Dr Paras Kothari, head of paediatrics department at Sion Hospital. Doctors said that most of these children have a stillborn delivery and timely radiological intervention is the only way to diagnose the condition well before 20 weeks of gestation.