Baby Born With 2nd Head to Get Surgery!

[~Deborah~]

I have NO clue where to put this but I HAD to post it.... It is just so unbelievable!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=10&u=/ap/20040204/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/dominican_two_heads

Baby Born With 2nd Head to Get Surgery
Wed Feb 4, 2:29 PM ET

By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - A Dominican infant born with a second head will undergo a risky operation Friday to remove the appendage, which has a partially formed brain, ears, eyes and lips.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/cpress/20040204/lthumb.g020404a.jpg

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040204/lthumb.xwa10302041434.dominican_two_brains_xwa103.jpg

The surgery is complicated because the two heads share arteries.


Led by a Los Angles-based neurosurgeon who successfully separated Guatemalan twins, the medical team will spend about 13 hours removing Rebeca Martinez's second head.


The 18 surgeons, nurses and doctors will cut off the undeveloped tissue, clip the veins and arteries and close the skull of the 7-week-old baby using a bone graft from another part of her body.


"We know this is a delicate operation," Rebeca's father, Franklyn Martinez, 28, told The Associated Press. "But we have a positive attitude."


CURE International, a Lemoyne, Pa.-based charity that gives medical care to disabled children in developing countries, is paying for the surgery and follow-up care.


Dr. Jorge Lazareff, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of California at Los Angeles' Mattel Children's Hospital, will lead the operation along with Dr. Benjamin Rivera, a neurosurgeon at the Medical Center of Santo Domingo. Lazareff led a team that successfully separated Guatemalan twin girls in 2002.


Doctors say if the surgery goes well Rebeca won't need physical therapy and will develop as a normal child.


Rebeca was born on Dec. 17 with the undeveloped head of her twin, a condition known as craniopagus parasiticus.


Twins born conjoined at the head are extremely rare, accounting for one of every 2.5 million births. Parasitic twins like Rebeca are even rarer.


Rebeca is the eighth documented case in the world of craniopagus parasiticus, said Dr. Santiago Hazim, medical director at CURE International's Center for Orthopedic Specialties in Santo Domingo, where the surgery will be performed.


All the other documented infants died before birth, making it the first known surgery of its kind, Lazareff and Hazim said.


Hazim said the surgery must be done now so the pressure of Rebeca's other brain doesn't prevent her from developing.


Rebeca shares blood vessels and arteries with her second head. Although only partially developed, the mouth on her second head moves when Rebeca is being breast-fed. Tests indicate some activity in her second brain.


Martinez and his 26-year-old wife, Maria Gisela Hiciano, say doctors told them before Rebeca was born that she would have a tumor on her head, but none of the prenatal tests showed a second head developing.


Martinez works at a tailor's shop. Hiciano is a supermarket cashier. Together they make about $200 a month. They have two other children, ages 4 and 1.


Lazareff says Rebeca's chances of survival are good. Still, he refuses to make a prognosis.





"We'll do everything we can to make this successful," he said.

[Martian Lullaby]

Holy moly!!!! That poor baby!! I'm so creeped out after reading that the mouth on the second head moves when the baby is being breastfed and even has brain activity. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Ugggghhhhhh.

[SarahK]

I heard this story on the noon news. I hope the little girl's operation is successful.

[AahRee]

How bizarre! I hope that everything goes well, but wow... I'm not sure what to think about it. I mean... the twin is really *alive*, isn't she? Even if she's only a head?

[Brooke]

How bizarre! I hope that everything goes well, but wow... I'm not sure what to think about it. I mean... the twin is really *alive*, isn't she? Even if she's only a head?
Alive?...I don't know. She doesn't breathe. She has no heart to pump blood. She's basically living/feeding off the first twin. I wouldn't consider her "alive".

However, I think I would have to name her, bury her, etc. She is a twin who is lost.

I hope the surgery goes well. This is really strange.

[MaryNH]

I hope things go ok for this family..........

[AahRee]

However, I think I would have to name her, bury her, etc. She is a twin who is lost.

I hope the surgery goes well. This is really strange.
Yeah, that's what I mean. I guess I'm not sure what to think of the term *parasitic*, because it makes me think of fleas and leeches, not twin sisters. I would feel a loss for the second twin, eventhough she didn't develop beyond a head. And if her mouth moves when the other twin breastfeeds, and she has arteries and brain activity, she's at least partly alive. I know she can't continue to live like that, and seperated from her sister, she will surely die, but I think, for me, it would be like pulling the plug on a terminal child. It would be harder than just removing a parasite, which is the way the article sort of describes it. They don't even give the twin her own name. She's just Rebeca's second head. :( But, not having been in that position, I'm certainly not judging her parents, or even her doctors. I just think it's a really bizarre and sad situation.

[SarahK]

I agree-I hate the trem parasitic to describe the second twin. Medical terms sometimes are so unfeeling.

[HollyNSC]

:eek: Oh my I have never seen that in my life..very interesting

[~Lisa~]

Oh My Goodness! :jawdrop:

[sheila]

wow, that's really sad.


and eeeeewwwwwww (sorry if I offend anyone, but I would have a very hard time dealing with her/them)

[TtownAnne]

What a truly sad and scary story.

(Sheila, you're not alone, I would have a hard time dealing too.)

[MizLacey]

I'm so thankful there is an organization out there to help defray the costs of the surgery. Parasitic twins tend to cause the host twin to die :( This is the first time I've seen a picture of a cranial parasite.

What an incredible story. I hope the operation is successful.

[harmonielyn]

Oh my god! Im speechless.

[Dennis]

The whole thing is amazing. And I would wonder about anyone who wouldn't have a hard time dealing with the baby.

Dennis

[MaryNH]

Admittedly, is an odd thing to observe.....but I would imagine if it were my child/situation, I'd feel differently....

[mcox]

Oh my gosh, that is so sad!!!

Michelle

[Erica]

That is such an odd/incredible/sad story. I truly hope that everything goes well.

I agree that the term parasitic is kind of a nasty word to use. Surely there could have been something else they could use. As someone else said when I think of parasites I thinks of the very bugs (fleas,ticks and worms) that can plague an animal!

[TtownAnne]

Parasite is almost scientifically appropriate, though, I guess - the second head isn't taking in it's own oxygen, creating its own blood cells, whatever. It's all coming from the baby. So, it is existing in a parasitic state, getting what it needs from the "host". Not necessarily appealing, but factual.

[Martian Lullaby]

I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t consider the second head to be a baby. I wouldn’t name it or bury it. Maybe if it were my child I would feel differently, but the whole thing is just creepy to me, almost science-fictionish. If it were a fully formed baby it would be different, of course. But it’s just a head. Not even a complete head. To me it just seems like more of a growth than a baby.

[Martian Lullaby]

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3782-3025108,00.html

Dominican Baby's Hopes For Normality
24/01/2004 06:19 AM
Jane Sutton

An international team of doctors hopes to operate in the Dominican Republic next month to remove an undeveloped second head from a baby girl born with one of the world's rarest birth defects, caused when a conjoined twin fails to develop in the womb.

The baby, Rebeca Martinez, was born in mid-December at a hospital in Santo Domingo with the head of an undeveloped twin attached to the top of her skull, facing upward.

The infant is otherwise healthy but her brain cannot develop normally unless the undeveloped head is removed, said Dr. Santiago Hazim, medical director at the CURE International Center for Orthopedic Specialties, where the surgery is tentatively set for Feb. 6 or 7.

Her condition, craniopagus parasiticus, is so rare that there have only been eight documented cases in the world, and no known cases where surgery has been attempted to correct it, Hazim said in a telephone interview.

Conjoined twins form when an embryo begins to split into identical twins and then stops, leaving them fused. Twins conjoined at the head account for about one of every 2.5 million births and about 2 percent of all conjoined births.

Rarer "parasitic" twins occur when one conjoined twin stops developing in the womb, leaving a smaller, incompletely formed twin that is dependent on the other. They can form as an extra limb, torso or head, or as a complete second body, lacking vital organs.

In Rebeca's case, there is a gap in her skull where the heads are joined, and the blood vessels are intertwined, Hazim said. The vestigial head is enlarged and fringed with dark hair like Rebeca's but has a poorly developed brain and only rudimentary facial features, he said.

Rebeca was born weighing about 7 pounds and now weighs over 10 pounds, but the undeveloped head is drawing away nutrients and exerting pressure on Rebeca's brain.

"She was able to go home after a couple of days in the hospital," Hazim said. "She's getting some weight on ... She cries, she wakes up in the morning like a normal child."

Dr. Jorge Lazareff, director of pediatric neurosurgery at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital, will lead a team of doctors traveling to Santo Domingo this weekend to examine Rebeca, meet with her parents and decide whether to proceed with the surgery.

"We want to do it, we believe it has to be done ... but the actual decision of going ahead, there is no actual decision," said Lazareff, who led the medical team that successfully separated Guatemalan twin girls joined at the head in 2002.

Two teams, each with nine volunteer doctors, would carry out the operation, working in 12-hour shifts.

Doctors would decide during the surgery whether to try closing Rebeca's skull using bone from the other skull. Otherwise, they would try to close it later using bone from a donor bank or a metal plate, Hazim said.

"It will depend on what we find," he said. "We haven't found one (case) like this in the literature that has been done. I believe this is going to be the first one."

Her parents Maria Gisela Hiciano, 26, and Franklyn Martinez, 28, earn only US$200 a month and cannot pay for her medical care.

The doctors are volunteering their services. The hospital where the surgery will take place is operated by CURE International, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Pennsylvania that provides medical and spiritual care for disabled children in developing nations.

[Dennis]

I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t consider the second head to be a baby. I wouldn’t name it or bury it. Maybe if it were my child I would feel differently, but the whole thing is just creepy to me, almost science-fictionish. If it were a fully formed baby it would be different, of course. But it’s just a head. Not even a complete head. To me it just seems like more of a growth than a baby.

I agree. But again, it's easy to say that when it's not your baby.

Dennis

[Brooke]

I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t consider the second head to be a baby. I wouldn’t name it or bury it. Maybe if it were my child I would feel differently, but the whole thing is just creepy to me, almost science-fictionish. If it were a fully formed baby it would be different, of course. But it’s just a head. Not even a complete head. To me it just seems like more of a growth than a baby.
I guess I consider it a second child because it is the head and it does have some facial features. If it were just an extra arm or leg, I would consider it a growth to be removed. But this was obviously originally a second twin who didn't develop.

Maybe it's the face that gets to me.

I hope the surgery is successful. That second article says it could be today or tomorrow.

[Jayne]

It seems so scary. I can't emagine going through all this as the parents. I really hope that the opperation is a success and that little Rebekah is ok. I am not sure how I feel about the second twin but I do know that there is one child there that needs a lot of love, attention, and prayers right now.

Jayne

[Martian Lullaby]

Apparently Rebeca's in surgery today.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/06/dominican.two.heads.ap/index.html

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- A team of surgeons began operating Friday on a Dominican infant born with a second head, a risky surgery that doctors say they believe to be the first of its kind.

Led by a Los Angles-based neurosurgeon, the medical team planned to spend about 13 hours Friday removing Rebeca Martinez's second head, which has a partially formed brain, ears, eyes and lips.

Eighteen doctors and nurses working in shifts were to cut off the undeveloped tissue, clip the veins and arteries and close the skull of the 7-week-old girl using a bone graft from another part of her body.

"The head on top is growing faster than the lower one," said Dr. Jorge Lazareff, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of California at Los Angeles' Mattel Children's Hospital. "If we don't operate, the child would barely be able to lift her head at 3 months old."

Lazareff said the pressure from the second head, attached on top of the first and facing up, would prevent Rebeca's brain from developing.

The operation's start was delayed for about four hours due to complications in administering anesthesia.

"The girl is stable. So far all her vital signs are fine," said Dr. Santiago Hazim, medical director at the Center for Orthopedic Specialties in Santo Domingo, where the surgery was being performed.

CURE International, a Lemoyne, Pennsylvania-based charity that gives medical care to disabled children in developing countries, is paying for the surgery, estimated at $100,000. The agency funds the Center for Orthopedic Specialties.

The operation is risky because the two heads share arteries.

"When the doctors come out and tell us it's all OK we'll be filled with happiness," father Franklin Martinez, 29, told The Associated Press Thursday.

Lazareff was to lead the operation along with Dr. Benjamin Rivera, a neurosurgeon at the Medical Center of Santo Domingo and the Center for Orthopedic Specialties. Lazareff led a team that successfully separated conjoined Guatemalan twin girls in 2002.

Doctors say if the surgery goes well, Rebeca won't need physical therapy and will develop as a normal child.

Twins are born conjoined at the head when an embryo splits to make identical twins and then stops growing, leaving them fused. Such twins are rare, accounting for one of every 2.5 million births.

Parasitic twins like Rebeca are even more rare. They occur when one stops developing, leaving a smaller, partially formed twin dependent on the other.

Rebeca is the eighth documented case in the world of craniopagus parasiticus, said Hazim.

All the other documented infants died before birth, making it the first known surgery of its particular kind, according to Lazareff and the other doctors.

Martinez and his 26-year-old wife, Maria Gisela Hiciano, say doctors told them Rebeca would be born with a tumor on her head but none of the prenatal tests showed a second head developing.

Although the second head is only partially developed, its mouth moves when Rebeca is being breast-fed.

Martinez works at a tailor's shop. Hiciano is a supermarket cashier. Together they make about $200 a month. They have two other children, ages 4 and 1.

[Martian Lullaby]

Martinez and his 26-year-old wife, Maria Gisela Hiciano, say doctors told them Rebeca would be born with a tumor on her head but none of the prenatal tests showed a second head developing.

Can you imagine what a shock this must have been when Rebeca was born?

[Kaybee711]

Did anyone see the show on Discovery health on Vanishing Twin Syndrome? It was so bizarre and reminds me of this! An 11 year old was carrying around his twin in his belly! They disected it on television and it was about the size of a basketball and had some nails and a face and some appendages and a lot of hair! When they opening it up it had no organs. Sorry about the tangent, just wanted to share.

[Martian Lullaby]

I wanted to see that but forgot about it!!! Are they going to replay it?

[~Deborah~]

Did anyone see the show on Discovery health on Vanishing Twin Syndrome? It was so bizarre and reminds me of this! An 11 year old was carrying around his twin in his belly! They disected it on television and it was about the size of a basketball and had some nails and a face and some appendages and a lot of hair! When they opening it up it had no organs. Sorry about the tangent, just wanted to share.

:wow:

[jenr812]

:jawdrop:WOW!!! That is insane :eek:

[TtownAnne]

It happened to my aunt's college roommate. She had always had stomach problems, but they could never figure out what was causing it (i.e., nothing obvious, no malformations or tumors or recognizable diseases). Finally one time after spending several days doubled over shrieking in pain they did exploratory surgery and found several bones lodged in the walls of her intestines - a spinal cord, some finger bones, etc. They had been absorbed into her digestive tract while both fetuses were developing, and only started "making themselves known" when she was in her early 20s.



Did anyone see the show on Discovery health on Vanishing Twin Syndrome? It was so bizarre and reminds me of this! An 11 year old was carrying around his twin in his belly! They disected it on television and it was about the size of a basketball and had some nails and a face and some appendages and a lot of hair! When they opening it up it had no organs. Sorry about the tangent, just wanted to share.

[~Deborah~]

It happened to my aunt's college roommate. She had always had stomach problems, but they could never figure out what was causing it (i.e., nothing obvious, no malformations or tumors or recognizable diseases). Finally one time after spending several days doubled over shrieking in pain they did exploratory surgery and found several bones lodged in the walls of her intestines - a spinal cord, some finger bones, etc. They had been absorbed into her digestive tract while both fetuses were developing, and only started "making themselves known" when she was in her early 20s.


http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10_1_17.gif

[Martian Lullaby]

That's so freaky! Did anybody ever read The Dark Half by Stephen King? It involves the same principle.

[Theresa2]

:jawdrop: Unbeliveable!

[Kaybee711]

Megan- I just looked on their website and on Tivo and there is no replay date. Sorry.

[JillMelissa]

This is the strangest story... it almost sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel! I hope the surgery is successful, I feel so bad for that whole family!

[Eleanor]

The little girl died :(

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040207/D80IG76G0.html
Girl Dies After Second Head Is RemovedEmail this Story (javascript:eMail_Friend(540, 540);)Feb 7, 10:26 AM (ET)

By PETER PRENGAMAN



http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/thumbnails//DOMINICAN_TWO_HEADS.sff_XMG103_20040206171449.jpg (http://apnews.excite.com/image/20040206/DOMINICAN_TWO_HEADS.sff_XMG103_20040206171449.html?date=20040207&docid=D80IG76G0)(AP) Swatt Pattel of UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital prepares Rebeca Martinez for surgery in Santo...
Full Image (http://apnews.excite.com/image/20040206/DOMINICAN_TWO_HEADS.sff_XMG103_20040206171449.html?date=20040207&docid=D80IG76G0)

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - An infant girl died Saturday after surgery to remove a second head, her mother said.

A medical team completed the operation Friday evening but said 8-week-old Rebeca Martinez had been susceptible to infection or hemorrhaging. The baby died 12 hours after the surgery, believed to be the first of its kind.

"She was too little to resist the surgery," the mother, 26-year-old Maria Gisela Hiciano, said by telephone from her home, sobbing softly.

Hiciano said doctors told her Rebeca died around 6 a.m. The second head, which doctors said threatened the girl's development, grew from the top of Rebeca's skull and had its own partly developed brain, ears, eyes and lips.

During the surgery, 18 surgeons, nurses and doctors had taken several rotations to cut off the undeveloped tissue, clip the veins and arteries, and close the skull using a bone and skin graft from the second head.

Doctors had warned her parents that Rebeca confronted "the second big risk, the post-operation recovery," according to Dr. Santiago Hazim, medical director of Santo Domingo's Center for Orthopedic Specialties, where the surgery was performed.

The operation was critical because the head on top was growing faster than the lower one, said Dr. Jorge Lazareff, the lead brain surgeon and director of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of California at Los Angeles' Mattel Children's Hospital.

Lazareff led a team that successfully separated conjoined Guatemalan twin girls in 2002. Hiciano and her husband, 29-year-old Franklin Martinez, have two other children, ages 4 and 1.

[SarahK]

Oh, how sad. :( Her poor parents--I hope the reporters leave them alone.

[Dennis]

That's so sad.

[Kaybee711]

:(

[~Deborah~]

Oh how awful. :cry:

[Brooke]

Oh, I'm so sad for them.

[Erica]

I just saw that on news and was coming to post. It is so sad. I was really hoping that she was going to make it.

[Cortney]

How sad :(

[jenr812]

:blue:

[Cazzle]

Poor little angel.

[~Lisa~]

:bawl:

[Martian Lullaby]

I'm so sad to hear this. :bawl: I was hoping for the best for them.

[Jayne]

This is just so sad :cry:

Jayne

[magoo]

So sad!!! :cry: I was really hoping that she would be okay!

Sarah

[Nocona]

That poor baby :(


Did anyone see the show on Discovery health on Vanishing Twin Syndrome? It was so bizarre and reminds me of this! An 11 year old was carrying around his twin in his belly! They disected it on television and it was about the size of a basketball and had some nails and a face and some appendages and a lot of hair! When they opening it up it had no organs. Sorry about the tangent, just wanted to share.
Ok, that's freaking me out. Matthew had a vanishing twin. I had done some research on it when I found that out and read all kinds of bizarre things, but I've never actually seen anything like that :errr:

[02cubed]

so very sad . . . :blue:

[AahRee]

:( I was hoping against hope that the surgery would work. Poor baby. I hope she wasn't in a lot of pain. :(

[olcott]

:( how sad

[Theresa2]

:( I was pulling for her!