Moderm surgery gives normal life to Siamese twins

living in the past century was rather tragic. The girls were born with two heads, one body, three legs, with two hearts and three lungs inside. When the mother learnt her children were conjoint she went mad and was taken to a mental hospital. The father was forced to sing a death certificate of the daughters. So, the girls could depend upon each other only when they grew up. They stayed at the Soviet Academy of Sciences Pediatrics Institute within seven years under supervision of doctors. The girls had their third leg amputated and could walk on crutches. At the institute, the girls were given elementary education.
 
In 1964, the sisters were placed to a boarding school for children with motor activity failures in the city of Novocherkassk. But the administration and other children treated the sisters as mental defectives. Doctors even neglected nephritis that was very painful for the girls. In 1970, Dasha and Masha came to Moscow where they could live at an old people's home for some time. But when the old people's home was turned into a mental home the sisters had to leave the place. Unfortunately, the girls could not find any employment and place for living. They were on the brink of poverty and Dasha even took to drinking alcohol which was a serious problem for the other sister. Within the past years, Dasha and Masha Krivoshlyapova subsisted on money and food endowed by kind people. The twins died last spring at the age of 53 because of acute infarction with one of the sisters. Dasha remained alive for several hours after Masha died.
 
The fate of the above-mentioned Siamese twins would have been different if they were born in a different epoch. About 300 Siamese twins have been separated in the world since 1950 in their infant age. Last year, St.Petersburg doctors separated twins fused at their breasts and partially at stomachs. Doctors and the mother knew beforehand that the girls would be Siamese twins and were ready for an operation.
 
In March 2005, Russian doctors of Moscow's Filatov Children's Clinical Hospital performed a unique operation and separated Siamese twins from the republic of Kyrgyzstan, Zita and Gita Rezakhonova, 11. Doctors worldwide have never seen such pathology: the twins had one urinary bladder, two kidneys, one pelvis and three legs. European doctors would not perform such an operation and the parents took the girls to Moscow. The operation lasted for ten hours. The successful separation gave the girls a chance to enjoy their lives independently. 

Often, surgical separation of Siamese twins entails serious moral and ethic problems. If twins have only one vitally important organ doctors know even before an operation that one of the twins will die after the operation. And it is almost always absolutely clear which of the two will die. It is the court that is to decide if Siamese twins having one vital organ will be separated or not.

August 8, 2000 Siamese sisters Jodie and Mary were born in Great Britain. It was clear from very beginning that only one of the girls, Jodie, was viable and Mary had defective blood and respiratory systems and just depended upon the sister's heart and lungs. The organism of Jodie would not have stood the double burden for longer than six months. So, the court had to decide whether the twins must be separated or not, a really hard decision judges said. If the court allowed separation of the twins it would mean death to Mary; if it rejected separation this would mean death first to Jodie and then to Mary. The parents strongly objected to separation. They wanted to obey the God's will and let both girls live their short lives. Finally, an operation was performed. It lasted for over 15 hours; as a result of it only Jodie survived as it had been supposed before.

Brothers Radu and Corneliy Papesku were born in Bucharest in 1980 fused at genitals. At the age of eight months they were separated; as a result of the operation Corneliy got the penis and Radu got the internal genitals. The boys developed normally after the operation. But each of the brothers felt that the other had deprived him of something important. And thus they often quarreled which is not typical of twins at all. At the age of 20, Corneliy said he felt he was a woman and wanted to change the sex. As a result of another operation Radu got the penis of the brother. The surgery brought peace to the Papesku family. Now the twins live happily as sister and brother.

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