Woman gives birth to baby with two heads in Lagos

A pregnant woman who was expecting twins has been delivered of a strange baby with two heads in a hospital in Lagos State.

Doctors and nurses at a hospital in the Ogudu area of Lagos State were thrown into shock after a pregnant woman who was expecting twins gave birth to a baby with two heads.

The Nation reports that the strange birth took place at the Med-In Specialist Hospital located on Oshogbo Street in the Ogudu area where the woman put to bed the baby girl with two heads.

The baby was said to have one neck, chest, two legs and two hands. Doctors at the hospital said the baby was born around 6:30 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, through an elective caesarean section.

It was gathered that the baby was resuscitated and transferred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), for advanced care.

According to one of the nurses who was in the delivery room, they had prepared two cots for each of the twins but were shocked when they saw that they were conjoined.

“This is the first time I am seeing anything like this. I have watched it in movies but seeing it in real life was such an experience for me. Thankfully, the surgeon ensured that they survived.

As I speak to you, the mother doesn’t know the condition of the babies. She still believes and expects to carry her twins. We haven’t told her yet.

Only her husband was brought into the theater to see the baby and he was the one who went with the doctors to LUTH,” the nurse said.

The medical director of the hospital, Dr. Dare Moses, said the baby was taken to LUTH so that tests can be conducted to ascertain if they share also vital organs like hearts and lungs.

“There is the need to find out if they share major organs together. They may have to be flown abroad for separation if they have separate hearts and other vital organs.

It is possible for them to survive. I have seen cases of twins like this in movie surviving and living normal lives.

Normally, when we have cases of a pregnant woman expecting twins, we usually go for elective caesarean, which was what the mother opted for.

But when the doctor was trying to extract one of the babies (first one), it got stuck and when he examined further, he discovered that there were two heads in one body.

We are happy that the baby was delivered alive and placed on oxygen. Both heads were alive.  It was really amazing. I am proud and thankful that we delivered the baby alive.

Yes, several scans were done by the mother in the course of pregnancy at different places, but none discovered any abnormality. We are thankful that the operation was successful.”According to medical doctors, the condition is known as Dicephalic Parapagus, is a rare form of partial twinning where there are two heads side by side on one torso and if carried to term, most dicephalic twins are stillborn, or die soon after birth.