Egypt ‘two-head’ baby will eat normally soon

CAIRO - An Egyptian baby who had surgery last month to remove the attached head of an undeveloped twin will be able to eat normally in about a week, one of her doctors said yesterday.

Eleven-month-old Manar Maged was born with craniopagus parasiticus, a very rare condition which left her attached by the skull to the head of her undeveloped twin. The twin could blink and smile but was not capable of independent life.

"She is still under anti-convulsion medication which makes her very sleepy, so we are feeding her through a rile tube (a tube connected to her stomach via her nose)" said Nasif Hifnawy, head of paediatrics at the Benha Children's Hospital, north of Cairo.

"I'm expecting that she will be able to eat normally in about a week ... Manar is showing good signs of progress," he told Reuters.

Doctors have said Manar's case is extremely rare and just surviving the operation was a big achievement.

Hifnawy said Manar's mother was being trained so she could help Manar after leaving the hospital. "We haven't yet decided when Manar will leave the hospital," he said.

Last Monday Manar was removed from the intensive care and transferred to the higher dependency unit.

Craniopagus parasiticus occurs when an embryo begins to split into identical twins but does not complete the process. One of the conjoined twins then fails to develop fully.

- REUTERS