Un bébé né avec deux têtes (document en anglais)

Baby born with two heads

Nowadays, everything is unpredictable. An infant girl was born Dec. 10 with the undeveloped head of her twins, a condition known as craniopagus parasiticus. She died after bleeding to death following complex surgery in which doctors removed the partly formed twin that had treatened her brain. It was a complete little baby girl that, on top of her head, was attach a second head on top and facing up.

The baby girl, Rebeca Martinez was only 8-week-old when a medical team completed the operation but she died 7 hours later after the surgery was done, which doctors believed to be the first of its kind. The father of the little Rebeca, 29-years-old franklin Martinez, knew that this was a risky surgery and now he accept what God has decided.

Dr. Jorge Lazareff, the lead brain surgeon said that the Dominican girl lost so much blood during the operation, which apparently caused a heart attack.

Doctors knew that there was a risk for the baby would be highly susceptible to infection or hemorrhaging after the surgery, which last 11 hours. Rebeca had so many transfusions during the operation, but that her blood wouldn't clot afterward due to the large amount of blood that the body kept pumping for the second head. It's was the worst complication that can happen in these kind of surgery.

They found out that the second head was growing faste then the complete one. It was probably an imballance of blood pressure for the second head that led to the hemorrhaging. At this state, the baby girl would have barely been able to lift her head at 3 months old. The pressure from the second head would have prevented Rebecca's brain from developing.

Baby that borns with conjoined head are extremely rare, accounting for one of every 2.5 million births. Parasitic twins like Rebecca, are even rarer.

© SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Feb. 7, 2004

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