Conjoined twin sisters fight for survival

The conjoined twins girls born last week at the Poly Clinic have brought happiness to their mother Shazia, but there are fears of losing them too as the babies are conjoined at chest and abdomen and are fighting for their survival in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). Shazia and Ali Mohammad, the parents, reached Poly Clinic Thursday night, the mother gave birth to the conjoined twin daughters with a normal delivery. Talking to Pakistan Today, Ali said, “He don’t believe that these are his babies as immediately after the delivery the nurse came and announced that my wife gave birth to two baby boys, but after sometime they said that your wife delivered two conjoined baby girls.”
He said that he did not know the reason behind it. “The doctors are saying your wife gave birth to premature babies whereas my wife and we all family members know she was nine-month pregnant and delivered the babies after maturity.” Ali, who is an Afghan refugee currently living in Bhara Kahu, says his wife is in the state of shock and as she also doesn’t believe that she gave birth to premature conjoined twins, while the doctors are saying they will operate the babies after six months. Dr Shareef Astori, the Poly Clinic spokesperson, told Pakistan Today that the delivery was normal, but the little conjoined girls were underweight as both of them were of only three kg. He said in absence of paediatric surgical facility at the hospital, the babies were shifted to the PIMS where they could get surgical treatment. “There was no complication in delivery and it was quite normal, but the babies were underweight. We shifted the conjoined twins to the PIMS where they will have surgery for separation.”
When contacted, PIMS Executive Director Mehmood Jamal said, “Unfortunately, the babies are premature and delivered in 34 weeks, whereas normally pregnancy takes 40 weeks time to get delivered mature and normal. It will take A minimum time of two weeks to examine them as they are in ICU and it’s hard to keep such premature babies on normal temperature.” He said the PIMS had constituted a special team of surgeons headed by Dr Zaheer Abbasi, which was looking into the case very keenly. “This is a very delicate case as apart from the fact of being conjoined, the babies are also premature and underweight. If the babies were delivered after a full time pregnancy they would have got the chance to develop more organs.”