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Fifty years ago, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the most famous Siamese twins of the 20th century failed to report for their shift at the grocery store where they had worked for most of the previous decade. On January 4th 1969, the door was forced, and Violet and Daisy Hilton were found dead from the Hong Kong flu. Daisy died first, and for two to four days Violet, sharing the same circulatory system, lay next to her conjoined sister, until the influenza consumed her too. They were sixty years old, and had lived a helluva life.Fifty years ago, in Charlotte, North...

Only little by little did Gracie Attard learn the story of her twin Rosie, the sister who’d died shortly after their birth. There was no sudden revelation, just a drip-feed of information; a slow-dawning realisation. ‘Mum and Dad used to take me to the cemetery where Rosie is buried and tell me: “She’s your sister, and you were twins.” Actually, they said we were joined together,’ she says. ‘Later I heard them use the word “conjoined”. I didn’t know what it meant, and when I was about seven I got my first dictionary and looked it up. ‘Then I felt...

TWINS Trishna and Krishna are recovering after marathon surgery of almost 32 hours, described as a "perfect" operation. Royal Children's Hospital head of surgery Leo Donnan emerged from the hospital shortly about 4.30pm today to declare the twins were now recovering in intensive care following the completion of five hours or reconstructive surgery. It came about three-and-a-half hours after he revealed the twins were successfully separated after almost 27 hours of complex surgery, the Herald Sun reports. Mr Donnan said the twins were "in good condition and healthy". "They’re both where we thought they’d be." He said the large team...

SALT LAKE CITY - Doctors successfully separated 4-year-old twin sisters born fused at the midsection, with just one kidney and one set of legs, and were continuing with reconstruction surgery early Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT Kendra and Maliyah Herrin were separated after nearly 16 hours of surgery at 10:50 p.m. Monday, which was about an hour earlier than had been expected. Ten minutes later, Kendra was moved to a separate operating room and the single surgery became two separate procedures. "It's exciting they're doing really, really well," said Rebecka Meyers, chief pediatric surgeon at Primary Children's Medical Center. "When a patient does...

SIAMESE twins from Anhui Province were sent to Shanghai East Hospital on March 1 for separation surgery, the Shanghai Youth Daily reported. Shanghai East Hospital is our last opportunity, I hope Shanghai doctors can successfully separate my babies,?said the mother of the twins. The twins are staying in the special ward for newborn babies. The twins share a heart, their livers and intestines are connected together and their bodies are connected for 15 centimetres from chest to navel. Liu Zhongmin, president of the hospital, said the incidence of Siamese twins is only one out of 200,000 births. He said this...

<p>Who isn't saddened to hear that Laleh and Ladan Bijani -- the twins from Iran, joined at the head -- died from the surgery they hoped would separate them? Only 29 years old, intelligent, educated, engaging, basically healthy -- here were two women who put their faith in God and medicine, trusting that "Operation Hope" would allow them the physical independence they craved. Still, it is hard to account for the level of interest and subsequent grief shown by perfect strangers around the world. What was it about this tragic tale of two women born conjoined that resonated with so many people?</p>

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The man who brought up the two Iranian sisters who died on Tuesday during marathon surgery in Singapore to separate their fused heads told of his deep sadness -- but also bitterness and anger -- at their deaths. Reuters Photo "We shared a house for 27 years and I feel a great emptiness," said Alireza Safaian, who adopted twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani, as children. A doctor himself, Safaian wept as he spoke to Reuters at his home in southwestern Tehran of his grief and distress at the decision of his daughters and the Singapore doctors to...

BAGHDAD, Sept 22 (AFP) - Siamese twins were recently born in Iraq, the first such case in the country which has been suffering from a lack of proper medical care due to the 12-year-old international embargo, hospital sources said Sunday. The twin brothers were born August 8 in a Baghdad hospital, joined by the stomach and the pelvis, they said. Their father, taxi driver Ahmad Ghazi Rashud, told AFP that he wanted to have a son before he was told his wife had given birth to siamese twin brothers. "I consulted five big hospitals in Baghdad, but the doctors...