Child stable after second head removed in op

A 10-month-old Egyptian girl was in stable condition today following intensive surgery to remove a second head that shared a blood vessel with her own brain.

Manar Maged, her head wrapped in a heavy white bandage that also covered her eyes, rested next to a blue teddy bear in the intensive care unit of Benha Hospital, near Cairo. Tubes ran from her nose and arms and nurses hovered around her.

Dr Abla al-Alfi, senior consultant at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, said there has been “some stabilisation” since Saturday’s operation.

She said Manar had already been taken off medication to control post-surgery convulsions but other concerns remained, including the baby’s liver, which had not functioned normally since the surgery.

“She needs intensive treatment for some time,” al-Alfi said.

The doctor said the 12-hour separation in the Nile Delta town of Benha, 25 miles north of Cairo, was the first surgery of its kind in the Middle East.

Manar and her twin sister, Noora, were born 11 months ago. Noora suffered minor respiratory problems but went home after a week. However, Manar, born with the extra head, stayed in intensive care for another month.

Al-Alfi said Manar developed normally but could not sit or crawl because of the extra weight of the “parasitic” second head.

The rare birth defect, craniopagus parasiticus, occurs when an embryo begins to split into identical twins but fails to complete the process, leaving an undeveloped conjoined twin in the womb.