Doctors in Islamabad's Children's Hospital have successfully separated a healthy child from a conjoined "parasite" twin without a head, heart or other vital organs, a surgeon said Thursday (June 30).
The two-week-old boy is in stable condition after a complex three-hour operation this week by a team of paediatric surgeons, doctor Zaheer Abbasi said at the Islamabad's Children's Hospital.
"In this case one of the twins, which was an incomplete parasite having complete lower limbs, one upper limb and external genitalia, was attached to the abdomen and lower pelvis of a normal healthy child," Abbasi said.
The surgeons had to act fast because the half-formed twin was sapping blood from its brother and endangering his life, he added.
"This is the first time surgery like this has been successfully performed in Pakistan," the doctor said.
The twins were born on June 17 to a labourer and his wife in Rawalpindi, Islamabad's crowded and poverty-stricken twin city.
The mother, housewife Shakila Nadeem, told AFP she was "very pleased" to have a baby boy after four daughters. Male children are prized in conservative Islamic Pakistan. "Initially I was nervous when I had the twins, but I had faith in Allah that he would shower His blessings and the baby would survive after the surgery," she said. The child has been given the name Abdullah, she added. Abassi said the boy was "doing well now."