Iranian Conjoined Twins in Singapore for Separation

Iranian twin sisters Laleh and Ladan Bijani went to Singapore in late November with the hope of eventually living separate lives.

Warded at Raffles Hospital, the 27-year-old sisters are currently undergoing a battery of tests be-fore doctors decide whether to separate them in what would be a unique operation for adults, surgeons told reporters.

The sisters, who are joined at the head, were turned away by German doctors in 1996 after tests showed that splitting them could be fatal.

Both women are qualified lawyers, but they are not working. Laleh told reporters that if they can be separated, she hoped to get a job. "I'd like to work as a lawyer in Iran."

The more extrovert Ladan, who is joined to her sister on the left side of her head, said: "We were told medical care is better here than in Germany." If doctors can separate them, she said, they were prepared to stay here as long as it takes.

The sisters came here with a female friend to interpret for them. Noushin Meran, a medical student, is staying in the room next to theirs.

"They have two separate brains lying within a single cranial cavity," Raffles Hospital's neurosurgeon Keith Goh, who will head the medical team, said.

The sisters will undergo several weeks of tests and Singapore doctors plan to consult with experts elsewhere before they decide if the twins can be split, plastic surgeon Dr Walter Tan said. In April 2001, doctors at the Singapore General Hospital separated the fused skulls and intertwined brains of 11-month-old Nepali girls Jamuna and Ganga Shrestha in a four-day operation.

After learning earlier this year of the successful separation of the Nepalese twins in Singapore, the sisters contacted Goh, who was a key member of the surgical team.

Like the Nepalese girls, the Bijani sisters share the major vein that drains blood from their heads.

The sisters, who occasionally suffer from severe headaches, will have a one-and-a-half palm-size cavity at the sides of their heads, which doctors will have to patch if they are separated.

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Khorsheed.com – Nov 2002