Two-Headed Baby Dies After Surgery

[Riesstiu IV]

Link

*Warning: Slightly creepy image*
Picture of the Baby

An infant girl born with a second head bled to death Saturday following complex surgery in which doctors removed the partly formed twin that had threatened her brain, her parents and doctors said.

A medical team completed the operation Friday night but said 8-week-old Rebeca Martinez died seven hours after the surgery, which doctors believed to be the first of its kind.

"We knew this was a very risky surgery, and now we accept what God has decided," said the father, 29-year-old Franklin Martinez, who stood next to his wife at a hospital news conference, visibly exhausted and eyes swollen. "Rebeca is no longer with us physically, but no one will forget her."

The Dominican girl lost a lot of blood during the operation, which apparently caused a heart attack, said Dr. Jorge Lazareff, the lead brain surgeon.

"This was not a failure or an error," he said. "When we left here last night at midnight the girl was in stable condition. At some point in the middle of the night, she started to bleed."

Doctors had warned the baby would be highly susceptible to infection or hemorrhaging after the operation, which lasted about 11 hours.

"She was too little to withstand the surgery,'' said her mother, 26-year-old Maria Gisela Hiciano, sobbing softly.

Doctors said Rebeca had many transfusions during the operation, but that her blood wouldn't clot afterward due to the large amount of blood the body kept trying to pump to the second head.

"In that case, you can't do anything. This is the worst complication that can happen in this kind of surgery," said Dr. Benjamin Rivera, one of two lead surgeons.

With its own partly developed brain, ears eyes and lips, the second head was growing faster than the lower one, said Lazareff, who in 2002 led a team that successfully separated conjoined Guatemalan twin girls in 2002.

Doctors will learn more in the coming months as they review details of Rebeca's operation, said Lazareff, who is director of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of California at Los Angeles' Mattel Children's Hospital.

"It was probably an imbalance of blood pressure" that led to the hemorrhaging, he said.

It will be up to the parents whether an autopsy is performed, Lazareff said. The doctor said such surgeries still could be viable in the future.

Without an operation, her doctors said Rebeca would have barely been able to lift her head at 3 months old. They said the pressure from the second head, attached on top of the first and facing up, would have prevented Rebeca's brain from developing.

During Friday's surgery, 18 surgeons, nurses and doctors worked in rotations to cut off the undeveloped tissue, clip the veins and arteries, and close the skull using a bone and skin graft from the second head.

"We feel like we've lost a family member," said Dr. Santiago Hazim, medical director of Santo Domingo's Center for Orthopedic Specialties, where the surgery was performed.

Rebeca was born Dec. 10 with the undeveloped head of her twin, a condition known as craniopagus parasiticus.

Her parents said doctors told them Rebeca would be born with a tumor on her head but that none of the prenatal tests showed a second head.

Twins born conjoined at the head are extremely rare, accounting for one of every 2.5 million births. Such twins have previously been separated in surgery.

Parasitic twins like Rebeca, however, are even rarer. She is the eighth documented case in the world of craniopagus parasiticus, Hazim said. All the other infants documented to have had the condition died before birth, making Rebeca's surgery the first known operation of its kind, the doctors said.

"We always saw Rebeca without the extra part of her body," her father said after her death.

Rebeca was Hiciano's third child — along with a 4-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl.

"We aren't going to have any more children," Hiciano said. "Not because of what happened to Rebeca, but for economic reasons."

Hiciano, a supermarket cashier, and her husband, who is a tailor, together make about 10,000 Dominican pesos ($200) a month in the Caribbean country.

CURE International, a Lemoyne, Pennsylvania-based charity that funds the orthopedic center and gives medical care to disabled children in developing countries, paid an estimated 100,000 for the surgery.

Rebeca's parents said they planned a funeral, but arrangements had yet to be announced.

 

[amadeus]

So two heads aren't better than one...

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
So two heads aren't better than one...

Depends on whether or not your want to get ahead in advertising

 

[Strider]

Strange how people turn the sad and serious matters into something stupid and funny.

 

[Archer 007]

Very sad to hear about the death of a child.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Originally posted by archer_007
Very sad to hear about the death of a child.

Indeed.

But, the only reason we got to hear about it was because it was a sensational case of a two-headed mutant.

$100,000 of charity money was spent trying to save this one child.That money could have saved alot more children if spent according to unitilitarian principals and not on a case with such long odds of success.

Life is harsh and I have to blame the manufacturer.

 

[Goober]

Wow, reminds me that all that Gene crap I apparently leanred in Bio11 actually has some use. Really quite sad though, but what a learning experience!!!

@kittenOFchaos: $100,000 is not really all that much money, it really couldn't have done THAT much more to save that many more kids. The Kid was NOT a mutant, she was the victim of the laws of Randomness (I wonder what the Odds of THIS are of happening . . . ?)

And while Life may be harsh, my bed is apparently comfy and soft . . .

 

[cgannon64]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos

But, the only reason we got to hear about it was because it was a sensational case of a two-headed mutant.

Indeed.

 

[The Person]

Well, if the extra head was threatening her brain, then she would most probably have died anyway. Poor little baby. There should be a law against such things.

 

[Akka]

Originally posted by RealGoober
@kittenOFchaos: $100,000 is not really all that much money, it really couldn't have done THAT much more to save that many more kids. The Kid was NOT a mutant, she was the victim of the laws of Randomness (I wonder what the Odds of THIS are of happening . . . ?)

A mutant IS a victim of the laws of Randomness.

 

[Xen]

*Warning: Slightly creepy image*

@#$%! holy #$%^ing Gods, I mean, !@#$, thats gonna have me -ing creeped out the rest of the day, slightley creepy my ass....

 

[Gogf]

Originally posted by Riesstiu IV
Link

*Warning: Slightly creepy image*
Picture of the Baby

That "Slightly creepy image" is disgusting. That's just sickening.

 

[philippe]

my condolences to the parents

 

[cgannon64]

I agree Xen and Gogf, but what did you expect? Once you think about it a two-headed baby can't look anything less then nasty.

Although having one head on top of the other is pretty weird.

 

[Theige]

Originally posted by philippe
my condolences to the parents

that sure reached them

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

Originally posted by cgannon64


Indeed.

 

[Riesstiu IV]

Originally posted by Xen


@#$%! holy #$%^ing Gods, I mean, !@#$, thats gonna have me -ing creeped out the rest of the day, slightley creepy my ass....

Originally posted by Gogf


That "Slightly creepy image" is disgusting. That's just sickening.

You two would make great doctors!

 

[stratego]

At least the title of this article makes the point clear, unlike most other articles about the case titled "Girl dies after second head removed." Made it sound like they removed two heads.

 

[eyrei]

Moderator Action: Closed. I hope you guys don't spam threads like this in the future.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889