ISLAMABAD, June 29: Doctors separated a newborn boy from his half-developed twin in a first-of-its-kind operation at the Children’s Hospital of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Wednesday. Hospital sources said the fully-developed boy was born on June 17 with his conjoint twin, having no upper part, attached to his abdomen.

He was doing fine after the three-hour operation carried out by a team of paediatric surgeons.

His father, a poor Pirwadhai resident, had two normal daughters earlier.

The mother was seen in a clinic at Rawalpindi and told that the ultrasound showed she was carrying a normal single male child.

Conjoint twins are a rare congenital problem. In this case, one of the twins was an incomplete parasite having lower limbs, one upper limb and external genitalia but no head and torso.

Doctors said the parasite twin was deriving blood from the fully-developed twin, thus endangering his life.

The normal healthy child had multiple congenital abnormalities as well with absent left ear, omphalocele and cleft palate.

This twin was investigated thoroughly with blood tests, X- rays, ultrasound, contrast studies, CT Scan, echocardiography, and many other tests.

The team of paediatric surgeons including Prof Dr Mohammad Zaheer, Dr Nadeem Akhtar, Dr Amjad Chaudhry, Dr Rehmat Elahi, Dr Asim Niazi, Dr Saeed Ahmad, Dr Obaidullah, Dr Iqbal Memon, Dr Rehmat Ali and many others operated on the twins for over three hours and successfully separated the healthy child from the parasite.

On autopsy, the parasite was found to have complete lower limbs, one upper limb, pair of kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder communicating with the urethra along with an intestine measuring 20cm.

It was the first time that such an operation was carried out in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Many conjoint patients are taken to western countries for treatment. Very few cases have been done successfully in the Third World countries.

The cost incurred on operation of this kind in the developed countries in enormous.