Conjoined twins die six days after birth in Gaza

The conjoined twins who were born last week in Gaza died on Monday, Quds Press has reported. The baby girls faced serious difficulties due to a shortage of medical equipment at Gaza’s main hospital.

The twins, who shared a body but had two hearts and two sets of lungs, were born by Caesarean section at Al-Shifa Hospital. According to Dr Allam Abu-Hamda, who monitored the babies from their birth, this was the second set of conjoined twins born in Gaza in the past six years. He explained that most of such babies die during the first 24 hours after birth and that, globally, only one out of 30 million live more than 24 hours.

“Separating them was very hard because they shared so many organs,” he added. It was decided not to separate them before their death. Nevertheless, he stressed that all of Gaza’s available hospital facilities were at the disposal of the staff who tried to keep the twins alive.

Referring to the shortage of necessary medical equipment in Gaza due to the siege on the territory led by Israel and Egypt, Dr Abu-Hamda also mentioned the difficulties of travelling abroad or even to the occupied West Bank to get urgently-needed treatment.