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Twin babies (symbolic image)
Photo: Eva Hecht / dpa
Seven weeks after birth, doctors at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) successfully separated twins who were joined together in the abdomen. The two girls were born by caesarean section in mid-August in the 33rd week of pregnancy, the hospital announced on Wednesday in Hamburg. The delivery was carried out by a large team of doctors from various disciplines.
»It was a special challenge«
In the 10th week of pregnancy, the parents from northern Germany had learned that their twins were unusually close together. A further examination at the UKE confirmed in the 12th week of pregnancy that they were connected to each other at the abdomen. As a result, the mother was closely cared for until the birth.
"It was a special challenge, because in a normal twin birth, only one child at a time has to pass through the opening of the uterus, since they are born one after the other," said the director of the clinic, Kurt Hecher. "But in this case there were two children at the same time. We are all the more pleased with the parents and their family about the happy outcome of this very special pregnancy and birth.«
Even before the birth, ultrasound and fetal MRI had determined that all vital organs were present in the twins and that there was only a fusion of the abdominal wall and the two livers. In a four-hour procedure, the children were finally separated and the bellies of both twins were closed.
As the NDR reports, the UKE is not aware of any comparable case from its 135-year clinic history. The head of paediatric intensive care, Dominique Singer, told the broadcaster that he had the impression that the two girls had stabilised each other during the difficult surgical separation. The UKE points out that science has been talking about connected twins for a long time and no longer of Siamese twins.
SWE/dpa