Parents’ heartbreak as doctors tell them they 'cannot save' conjoined twins who share the same body but have two heads

A woman has given birth to conjoined twins which share a torso but have two heads, four arms and two legs between them.

Preeti Singh, 26, gave birth to the babies by caesarean section in February and hopes they can one day be separated.

The babies appear to be dicephalic parapagus twins, a rare form of conjoined twin which doctors reportedly didn't notice in Mrs Singh's ultrasound scan.

Their sexes are unknown because their body is deformed, but doctors intend to work this out using scans.

Mrs Singh's family say doctors in their hometown can't 'save' the babies, so they may have to be taken to the capital city for healthcare.

Mrs Singh, from Panipat in northern India, approximately 62 miles (100km) from New Delhi, didn't know her twins were conjoined until she gave birth.

She had only had one ultrasound scan while pregnant and, when it showed two heads and four arms, she was told she could expect twins.

But when born, they were no ordinary twins – parapagus twins are extremely rare and are thought to only occur in around 0.1 per cent of twin pregnancies.

The condition usually means two infants are joined side-by-side at the torso and have their own sets of internal organs and limbs, though this can vary.

Mrs Singh's father-in-law, the children's grandfather, said local doctors have told them they cannot save the children, and they must be taken to New Delhi for treatment. It is not clear whether the twins' lives are in immediate danger.

Dr Vijay Gupta, who runs the Sanjeeveni Nursing Home where the babies were born, said: 'The woman had come to the hospital with labour pains.

'We had to perform a caesarean section as her blood pressure was high and there was a chance her of uterus could rupture if she tried to push them out naturally.

'The babies share the same body but have individual organs with two lungs each, two hearts and two brains.'

Dr Gupta said the babies can breathe fine on their own and are feeding properly.

Medics suggest they may one day be able to be separated by specialist surgeons at a more major hospital.

Although their organs appear to be functioning, their body was born with only two legs meaning, if they were separated, one or both would be unable to walk normally.

Source: The Daily Mail