Adult Siamese twins plead for separation

December 4, 2002 3:17 PM

Adult Siamese twins plead for separationDoctors in Singapore are considering whether to separate a pair of 28-year-old twin sisters who are joined at the head - an unprecedented operation for adults. Neurosurgeon Keith Goh says he and his team will decide by the end of the year if an operation can be successful. They went to Singapore after hearing about the successful surgery led by Dr Goh on baby twins from Nepal who were also joined at the head. The operation - if it goes ahead - involves separating two brains encased within a single bony structure in the head, Dr Goh said. The twins say they want to be separated because of deep differences between them. "We are two completely separate individuals who are stuck to each other," Ladan, the more extrovert of the sisters, told reporters. "We have different lifestyles," she said. "We think very differently about issues." The twins said that if their situation continues for much longer, they will not "stand it any more".
posted by Coop (11 comments total)

"The operation - if it goes ahead"... that is sooooo wrong.
posted by banished at 3:38 PM on December 4, 2002

I think that could have been summarized in one or two sentences.

Also, we covered conjoined twins back in August. (Whew, time flies.) The Guatemalan twins are doing moderately well. Meanwhile, an upbeat view of the Iranian adult twins. The hospital news page, which has more information on the women and ways to donate.
posted by dhartung at 3:42 PM on December 4, 2002

Can't they all just 'get along'?
posted by HTuttle at 5:45 PM on December 4, 2002

Can't Metafilter users get along? Why is there always a snotty reprimand concerning how the post was written? Is it part of the Meta fun? I'm confused.
posted by inksyndicate at 6:41 PM on December 4, 2002

(thanks dhartung for the extra links - the post basically quoted anything of interest in the article so I agree it could have been shorter or included additional sources, but it's a pretty interesting topic, I think. )

I wonder how much risk they're willing to put up with to go through with the surgery - if they want to be separate badly enough that they'd take a 50% risk of death, e.g. Or if they talk about the possibility that one of them survives and the other doesn't make it - would the survivor regret the decision or have they agreed with one another that each is willing to die for the other's life? Or are they just hopeful the doctor will say, 'yes we've figured out a new technique with a 90% chance of success!'

how strange it would be to be so overwhelmingly intimate with a sibling and then be separate though. Every second of your life spent with your twin... though at least these two have separate bodies, unlike those minnesota ? girls.
posted by mdn at 6:55 PM on December 4, 2002

It says they both have law degrees from university... I wonder how they took their exams? Would they do them together or would one of them just kind of do nothing while the other wrote?
posted by mckayc at 8:51 PM on December 4, 2002

inksyndicate: Metafilter is a self-policing community. Extended commentary on individual posts or problematic trends takes place in metatalk. Personally, I feel I was polite: I prefaced my comment with I think. And in supplying the double-post links, I enriched the thread.
posted by dhartung at 10:38 PM on December 4, 2002

I think if they are aware of the risks, and the surgery can be performed, it should be.
posted by agregoli at 7:09 AM on December 5, 2002

Here's the part that makes me laugh--The twins say they are motivated to be separated by something that motivates the rest of us non-conjoined people to do a variety of things, getting divorced, moving out, seeking new employment: They don't like each other. I mean, just imagine being fused at the head to that mouth-breather you roomed with in college who could never seem to pick up his socks.
posted by NedKoppel at 7:15 AM on December 5, 2002

dhartung:
You were right. The post was too long. I was careless and didn't edit it enough. I was ticked when I published it. Won't happen again.
posted by Coop at 3:11 PM on December 5, 2002

there will be connections that will have to be disconnected.

Well, I needed a brain surgeon to spell that out for me.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 5:02 PM on December 5, 2002