Latur’s conjoined twins die on their way to Mumbai hospital

A set of conjoined twin boys, who shared a heart and liver, died on their way to the city from drought-hit Latur

A set of conjoined twins from Latur who were born with a single heart and a liver, died on their way to Mumbai on Sunday around 8:30pm near Pune.

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Conjoined twins are an extremely rare phenomenon — one in ten lakh and more than half are still- born, said doctors.

The babies were born to 24-year-old Taslim Masuldar, at the Latur Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on Saturday. They were being brought to the civic-run Sion Hospital for advanced paediatric surgery.

“The case was referred to us as we have operated on babies with a similar condition in the past,” said Dr Paras Kothari, head of paediatric surgery, Sion Hospital.

“If the twins had made it to the hospital, we may have been able to save at least one of them. Saving both of them would have been impossible,” he said.

He said in this case, the twins shared a common heart, which was unable to pump blood into both the bodies.

According to Dr Shiv Prasad Mundada, head of paediatrics department, GMCH, the parents would have had the option terminating the pregnancy if the mother had taken an ultrasound test before completing 20 weeks. “The mother had not undergone a sonography during her early pregnancy as she could not afford the tests,” he said.

“She lives in a remote district, Osmanabad, and approached us only on Saturday when she went into labour pain. It was too late to shift her to a hospital with good neonatal care facilities,” Mundada said.