SANJEEV GHANGAS / COVER ASIA PRESS
Conjoined twin girls who look like a single two-headed baby were born Wednesday at a hospital in northern India
Urmila Sharma, 28, was too poor to afford an ultrasound and had no idea she was carrying conjoined twins, reports said.
SANJEEV GHANGAS / COVER ASIA PRESS
Mom Urmila Sharma had no idea she was carrying conjoined twins.
“She is presently alive and healthy,” Dr. Ashish Sehgal said of the twins, although doctors do not expect them to survive.
The twins each have a head but share one body and all their vital organs, so separation is not possible.
SANJEEV GHANGAS / COVER ASIA PRESS
The Cygnus J.K. Hindu Hospital in Sonipat, Haryana, India, is where the conjoined babies were born.
A very “meticulous and challenging” surgery could save the babies’ lives, but doctors cannot operate until the girls are stable, Sehgal — who's also the CEO of the Cygnus J.K. Hindu Hospital in Sonipat, Haryana — told the Daily News.
The twins are currently in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
SANJEEV GHANGAS / COVER ASIA PRESS
The conjoined infants are currently in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Sehgal said keeping them alive was “a real tough challenge,” but said he is “hoping for success with crossed fingers.”
Doctors said it was too late do anything by the time Sharma delivered the twins via Caesarean section. They were born weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces and have not been named.
The twins have two necks and two spines.
British papers report the mother’s family is “very distressed.”
Some conjoined twins can be separated — depending on shared organs and where they’re connected — but most are stillborn or die shortly after birth.
