Remaining Conjoined Twin Dies In Hospital, Great Ormond Street Announces

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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 26 Dec 2008 - 6:00 PST

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Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, England, has confirmed that Faith Williams died in the afternoon of Christmas day. Professor Agostino Pierro, head of the surgical team, said "This is very sad news and our sincere condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Williams on their tragic loss. The family will want peace and privacy at this difficult time. We were always clear that Faith was very sick. She required the full range of skills of our intensive care staff, and underwent a number of further procedures. However, she succumbed to the complexities of her condition. While this is a sad outcome, it is not an unexpected one."

The hospital added that Mr. and Mrs. Williams were very happy with the care they and their children received at Great Ormond Street.

Background

In November 2008 Laura Williams gave birth to two conjoined twins, Faith and Hope, at University College Hospital, London. They were transferred to Great Ormond Street children's hospital. The girls were delivered by C-section.

Laura 18, and husband Aled had been advised by doctors to abort the fetuses, but they decided to go through with the pregnancy.

The girls were born with two separate hearts and were joined from the navel to the breastbone. Initially, doctors had been hopeful because the twins were joined at the front and could be successfully separated. Approximately three-quarters of conjoined twins do not survive beyond their first day of life.

The operation to separate the two girls had to be done earlier than doctors had wanted because the girls' health suddenly began to deteriorate. They had to undergo an emergency operation because their joined intestine had become blocked. The only way to resolve the blockage was by separation. Although the operation was "extremely challenging", it went according to plan. After the separation the girls were moved to two different theatres, along with two surgical teams.

Professor Agostino Pierro said Hope's lungs were too small to support her breathing and she died on 2nd December - her parents were present.

On 3rd December Faith was stable. Although she required breathing support, the hospital informed that her condition was gradually improving. Sadly, her improvement did not continue and she died yesterday (Christmas Day).

Mrs. Laura Williams is believed to be the youngest woman in Great Britain to have given birth to conjoined twins.

What Are Conjoined Twins?

There are 2 types of twins:

-- Fraternal Twins and
-- Identical Twins

-- Fraternal Twins come from two separate eggs (dizygotic) .

-- Identical Twins come from the same single egg (monozygotic) ; the developing embryo divides into two.

-- Identical Twins look very much like each other

-- Fraternal Twins are as similar to each other as normal siblings are.

(Monozygotic = They result from the fertilization of one egg by one sperm. Dizygotic = They are the result of two eggs that are fertilized by two sperm)

-- Fraternal Twins can be the same sex or different sexes.
-- Identical Twins are the same gender.

Conjoined Twins are Identical Twins, but when the embryo starts to split, on the 13th day after conception, it does not do so completely - parts of the two stay stuck together. The two embryos mature into two fetuses that have parts of their bodies stuck to each other.

For some reason, more conjoined twins are girls than boys. For every pair of male conjoined twins born, three pairs of female conjoined twins are born. This is puzzling, because male identical twins are more common than female identical twins.

About 1 in every 40,000 to 70,000 births are conjoined twins. Only 1 in every 200,000 live births are conjoined twins.

40% of conjoined twins are stillborn, 75% are either stillborn or do not survive beyond their first 24 hours of life.

Source - Great Ormond Street Hospital

Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today