Baby born with two heads in Philippines

(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Conjoined twins never cease to amaze me, and this case one is no exception.

A baby girl with two heads was born in Manila, the Philippines, on Tuesday night.

“Baby Girl Arciaga" was also born with two hearts, though they're contained in one sac. The heads have separate brains (um...duh) and spines, CBS News reported.

The condition is called dicephaly monozygotic conjoined birth, and it occurs in only one out of 80,000 live births.

Doctors at the Philippine Heart Center said an underdeveloped heart threatens could kill the twins, who were also born with neo-natal pneumonia. Their complexion turns dark when they cry because of a hole in one of the hearts.

“Eventually if one heart fails, the other one will be affected,” said Dr. Ruben Flores, director of Fabella Memorial Hospital, where the twins were born.

He also said it might be impossible to separate the twins because they share one body and most organs.

Might? Um...correct me if I'm wrong, but...ugh...doesn't a head need a body to exist? There are two heads and one body.

The twins are due to undergo a computed tomography angiography so that doctors can get a clearer picture of their physical features before they can finally decide on an operation to separate the conjoined twins.

Am I missing something here?

Ultrasound images before the birth showed only one baby, so the Arciaga couple--whose families have twins on both sides--did not expect twins. I wonder how doctors missed the second head. Heads are measured during ultrasounds to determine how far along the pregnancy is and keep track of the fetus' development.

Salvador Arciaga, the twins’ father, earns a meager income as a tricycle driver, so he appealed to the public for financial assistance, CBS News reported.

“Please help our baby. Please support us and help us extend their lives,” he said.

The Arciagas could only hope that their twins end up like Abigail and Brittany Hensel of Minnesota, who for 19 years have been living with one body. They can walk, run, ride a bicycle, and even drive. I've seen documentaries about these amazing girls.

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, the overall survival rate of conjoined twins is somewhere between 5% and 25%, CBS reported.

Source: CBS News
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved