[Brazil] Healthy two headed boy born

[Romire]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...irwX97QOHM#_=_

A Brazilian woman has given birth to a two-headed baby boy and doctors say the newborn appears to be in good health. Maria de Nazare has decided to name the pair, who share a heart, lungs, liver and pelvis, Emanoel and Jesus.

"When doctors scanned her they realized that the baby had two heads and that a normal birth would be a great risk both for mother and baby," hospital director Claudionor Assis de Vasconcelos told Brazil's O Povo newspaper. "The caesarean took an hour because the baby was sitting down."
"Despite all the problems we have as a small interior hospital we managed to save both mother and baby, which was our aim," he said. "And for us it was a great surprise to find out that the child was in really good health."

De Nazare was expecting twins and only found out about the two-headed child minutes before doctors advised her to have a caesarean birth in order to save both her life and that of her baby. Along with two heads, the 9.9 pound newborns have separate spines.
In some two-headed births where one brain is less developed, one head is removed in order to save the child's life. But rarer cases like this one, where there are two functioning brains, complicates the decision making process for doctors.

"If both their brains are functioning, how are we going to choose which head to remove?" said Neila Dahas, director of the Santa Casa hospital. "We are not considering the possibility of surgery. What we've got to think about at this moment is to maintain the children in good condition and see how they will develop."

Conjoined twins sharing a body, but with separate heads, are extremely rare but not without precedent. This is the second such birth in Brazil this year. However, the other child died after a few hours because of a lack of oxygen to one of the child's heads.
There have been at least 14 dicephalic conjoined twins born over the past 200 years.
In the United States, 21-year-old Abigail and Brittany Hensel were the subject of a 1996 documentary from The Learning Channel and appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Now thats an rarity to see!

Also anyone deciding to say freakish comments or anything like that, while im not a mod, they are watching

[Aristeia]

Very interesting, I wonder if they'll develop well mentally or if one head might turn out to be underdeveloped, let's hope not.

[vizzle]

So I wonder how that works. Do they both have control over all their limbs, or does one head control the right side and the other head controls the left. And if it's the former, what happens when one of the wants to move an arm up while the other wants to move it down?

[JimPaladin]

no hobles es two headed numbra one

[Nerou]

Dang, that's hardcore

[fews]

and we shall name him Zaphod

[PlatedPriest]

wow. both brains are functioning o.k atm wont do surgery?

i feel so sorry for that child.

[Vehemence]

Intradesting...

[Aristeia]

wow. both brains are functioning o.k atm wont do surgery?

i feel so sorry for that child.

They'll be able to help each other out on homework, it would be awesome.

[Romire]

no hobles es two headed numbra one

I dont know what they have just said, and google translate is having a hard time

[Dacien]

Hopefully they'll be able to live life like these girls do:

[Romire]

My biggest question is how those 2 will be able to have a child much less have sex

[Orestis]

Hopefully they'll be able to live life like these girls do:

<snip>

That raises so many questions for me... granted they are somewhat stupid questions like who gets the ticket if they're caught speeding? Can one text while the other drives?

I'm in awe that they function so well, yet am so curious as to how. Awesome to see it's not detrimental to their lives though.

[Needalight]

hope it turns out like those two conjoined twins, live a healthy life

[Paulosio]

Well if it has 2 brains surely it's 2 babies rather than 1 baby with 2 heads....

[Ihnasir]

inb4 Cho'gall

[Puck]

Hopefully they'll be able to live life like these girls do:

It's just so weird! But at the same time it's also fascinating. I don't know how to feel.

[Nifra]

Wow... Both scary and fascinating.

The thing that worries me is that, those twins (girls) have two hearts, two stomachs, etc. Making it easier to pump blood to each of their brains..
While the boys only have 1 heart.. So imagine how much work it'll be to pump all that blood and oxygen to two heads.. Yikes.

[Deleted]

inb4 Cho'gall

Omg......my Cola....

[Gheld]

My biggest curiosity (with the girls) is that with the whole waist down things, as far as motor control goes how is it wired? Does each of them have 1 leg or do they have kind of an "OR" setup going on?