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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Iranian brain op twins die |
| 2003-07-08 |
| Twin Iranian sisters joined at the head since birth have died from massive blood loss after surgeons in Singapore separated them. The deaths of Laleh and Ladan Bijani after an historic 52-hour operation by 28 specialists and 100 assistants plunged Iran into grief and brought shock and tears to Singapore’s Raffles Hospital where the surgery took place. "We were hoping to try and do better than the worst odds. But alas we didn’t make it," Raffles Hospital chairman Loo Choon Yong told reporters. "When we undertook this challenge, we knew the risks were great. We knew that one of the scenarios was that we may lose both of them. Ladan and Laleh knew it too," Loo said. The twins, who died within 90 minutes of each other, had said last month they were willing to risk death for the chance to live separately after sacrifice and compromise because of their very different personalities. Both had law degrees, but Ladan -- the more outspoken of the two -- had said she wanted to be a lawyer in her home town of Shiraz while Laleh wanted to be a journalist in Tehran. "I was shocked. I still don’t believe it. Ladan was very friendly, she always liked to joke," said Hossein Afkami, 42, an Iranian who has lived in Singapore for 15 years. The operation, led by neurosurgeon Dr Keith Goh, ran into several major complications. The women’s blood pressure had been fluctuating and surgeons discovered the brains were more closely linked than had previously been thought. "The twins lost a lot of blood and were in a critical situation as the surgery was coming to an end," the hospital said. Damn. I was hoping they’d make it... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |