Freedumb For The Masses

Keeping It In Perspective

This is from Reuters...

SINGAPORE - Neurosurgeons trying to separate Iranian twins joined at the head teased apart tightly packed brain tissue and blood vessels on Tuesday as the life-threatening operation moved into its third day.

Soothing classical music played in the operating theater as the team of 28 doctors and about 100 assistants at a Singapore hospital battled unstable blood circulation amid an array of lines that feed Laleh and Ladan Bijani intravenously and monitored their vital signs.

After cutting open the 29-year-old pair's joint skull in the hours after the surgery began on Sunday, five neurosurgeons were prying apart the brains millimeter by millimeter, said Dr Prem Kumar Nair, a spokesman for Singapore's Raffles Hospital.

One of the girls died. Just hours ago.

An update from Sky News...

An Iranian twin has died after two days of unprecedented, high-risk surgery to separate her skull and brain from those of her conjoined sister.

The second twin was in a critical condition and fighting for her life as doctors attempted to stabilise her.

The operation on 29-year-old Laleh and Ladan Bijani entered a "critical stage" after a team of 28 specialists and 100 assistants pryed apart their tightly-packed brain tissue and blood vessels at Singapore's Raffles hospital.

"Despite the best efforts of the medical team, Ladan Bijani passed away," hospital spokesman Dr Prem Kumar Nair said to cries of grief from hundreds of supporters and friends gathered at the hospital.

When my grandfather died I am pretty sure I didnt cry about it. When my cat died I am pretty sure i didn't cry about it. But this is different.

These twins lived for 29 years joined at the head. Seeing the same things, doing the same things, going to the same places, knowing the same people, seeing the world from the same 45 degree angle. Yet thinking entirely different thoughts and having entirely different personalities. One wanted to go to university and study journalism, the other wanted to study law. They wanted to look into one anothers eyes without the aid of a mirror. They wanted to live independant lives.

The risk of failure was incredibly high. A 50% chance that one or both twins would die. They were determined to take that risk, to risk everything they had, in a fight to live better lives.

One girl, Ladan Bijani, is now dead. The massive loss of blood was too much for her system and her fight to live an independant life has ended. Her sister, Laleh Bijani, now lies in a critical condition in a Singapore hospital. Half of her very existence, has died and been cut away. If she wakes up without massive brain damage, she will know that her life as a free woman comes at the cost of her sisters. Minutes before they fell asleep under anaesthetic they, with the aid of a mirror, said goodbye to one another for the last time, knowing full well that they could quite well both be dead before they wake up. Yet knowing at the same time that they simply had to try.

Thats courage. These 2 humble Iranian women, born into a dirt poor Iranian family, are my heros for a long time to come. They had the unflinching courage to do the things they simply had to do regardless of what was at stake.

Ordinarily I would keep things like this, and the way I feel about them, to myself. But I thought it was especially relevant to post something like this today considering the tone and content on my last post. That is to say, come what may, I realise something i've always known. That the problems in my life, are trivial, positively ant sized, compared to the problems that other people deal with on a daily basis. The story of Ladan and Laleh Bijani fills me with as much sorrow as it does gratitude and inspiration. Inspiration to tackle life and it's challenges. Gratitude not to anyone in particular, but to the forces that be for allowing me to live in good health and spirits. What more can I ask?


Posted by ExistAngst at July 9, 2003 12:57 AM