Conjoined twins die in the hospital

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Two-week-old conjoined twins with fused lower bodies died of infection in a hospital here on Thursday, their doctor said.

Suganda Tanuwidjaja, a member of the medical team treating the twins, said that the twins died of infection caused by bacteria Clepsiela and Pseudomonas.

One of the twins, Abdurrahman, whose heart was located on the right side of his chest, died first at 7:15 a.m. at Hasan Sadikin Hospital here. His brother Abdurrahim died two hours later.

Suganda suspected that the infection came from the feces and urine of the twins. "The urethra and large intestine of the twins, the source of the infection, were conjoined. Germs were easily absorbed by the twins which eventually attacked their hearts," said Suganda.

He said that the team of doctors had earlier administered antibiotics to kill the bacterial infection.

"However, the bacteria were apparently already immune to the antibiotics, and as a result, the infection got even worse," Suganda told reporters.

The twins were born on July 12 with separate heads and chests, but fused at the stomach. They had only one buttock. They initially had no anus, but surgeons created an anus two days after their birth.

The twins had no sex organs, but a scrotum was discovered. They had only one navel, and each had two arms and two legs.

The doctors had estimated that the twins, joined at the stomach and groin, would have to wait at least six months for surgery to separate them.

Suganda said that Abdurrahim's condition improved shortly after the death of his brother Abdurrahman at 7.15 a.m. but worsened again before he died at 9 a.m.

Suganda said the doctors had given the twins a blood transfusion in the last four days, especially Abdurrahman, whose health was first to deteriorate. The twins shared a bladder and kidney.

Last year, a team of doctors in the hospital treated another set of twins conjoined at the stomach, but they also died at two- and-a-half months old before they were separated.

Conjoined twins occur about once in every 150,000 to 200,000 live births.