Madagascar conjoined twin girls die

Aug 21, 2009, 15:15 GMT

   Antananarivo - Conjoined twin girls born in Madagascar three months ago have died four weeks after surgeons decided it was too risky to separate them, local media reported Friday.

   Kambana und Sova were born in the remote village of Sahavavy in the east of the impoverished Indian Ocean island on May 10. They were joined in the area of the genitalia and anus.

   Their combined weight at birth was 3.6 kilogrammes.

   'A separation is impossible, today and also later,' Lalatiana Andriamanarivo, a surgeon at Toamasina hospital, told local media at the end of July. The little girls shared several vital organs meaning a separation would endanger their lives, he said.

Tbabies were admitted to hospital in the port of Tamatave, days after the doctor made his announcement.

   Andriamanarivo said at the time the decision not to operate was taken in consultation with surgeons at Necker children's hospital in Paris, where he was part of a team of surgeons that successfully separated Siamese twin Madagascan boys Imahagaga und Imahalatsa at eight months in February.

   The two boys from southern Madagascar were attached at the lungs and stomach and also shared a liver.

   They have since returned home and are in good health.

   Kambana und Sova's mother, 37-year-old Josie Aurette, who already had seven other children, walked for four days after giving birth to the twins. Both she and her husband are subsistence farmers.

   Conjoined twins are very rare, occurring only in around one in every 100,000 pregnancies. In 90 per cent of cases, the twins are girls.

   The condition arises when the egg from which identical twins develop fails to divide properly.