THE DEATHS OF Laleh and Ladan Bijani, 29, abruptly halted a historic 50-hour operation by a team of 28 specialists and 100 assistants to separate siblings fused at the head, or craniopagus twins, as doctors call the condition.
The twins’ homeland of Iran was plunged into shock and grief after television there broke into regular programming to announce the news. President Mohammed Khatami had pledged on Monday to pay for the cost of the operation, estimated at $300,000.
At Raffles Hospital in Singapore, hundreds of supporters and friends of the twins wept and hugged each other.
‘WE KNEW THE RISKS WERE GREAT’
“When we undertook this challenge we knew the risks were great,” hospital chairman Loo Choon Yong told reporters. “We knew that one of the scenarios was that we may lose both of them. Ladan and Laleh knew it too.
“We were hoping to try and do better than the worst odds. But alas we didn’t make it.”
Ladan began to lose blood at around 2 p.m. (2 a.m. ET), and died at 2:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. ET), doctors said. Brain surgery continued on Laleh, who died at 4 p.m. (4 a.m. ET)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/935135.asp#BODY
The twins’ homeland of Iran was plunged into shock and grief after television there broke into regular programming to announce the news. President Mohammed Khatami had pledged on Monday to pay for the cost of the operation, estimated at $300,000.
At Raffles Hospital in Singapore, hundreds of supporters and friends of the twins wept and hugged each other.
‘WE KNEW THE RISKS WERE GREAT’
“When we undertook this challenge we knew the risks were great,” hospital chairman Loo Choon Yong told reporters. “We knew that one of the scenarios was that we may lose both of them. Ladan and Laleh knew it too.
“We were hoping to try and do better than the worst odds. But alas we didn’t make it.”
Ladan began to lose blood at around 2 p.m. (2 a.m. ET), and died at 2:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. ET), doctors said. Brain surgery continued on Laleh, who died at 4 p.m. (4 a.m. ET)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/935135.asp#BODY
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