INDONESIA: A baby has been born with two faces and two brains but just one head.
Little Gilang Andika, from Batam, Indonesia has two faces because his conjoined twin did not develop properly in the womb.
Gilang is now two-months-old but sadly is now fighting for his life because he also has a potentially fatal brain condition that is causing fluid to build up.
His parents, Ernilasari and Mustafa, now desperately want help to save their son’s life after local doctors told them they were unable to operate. Although he has just one body with two arms and two legs, Gilang is technically a conjoined twin – a condition which affects one in every 250,000 births.
On his head, he has the face and brain of a sibling which did not grow its own body in the womb, because their mother’s egg did not completely split in two during pregnancy.
He cannot be breastfed and is currently receiving milk through a tube. He also has a condition called hydrocephalus, which is caused by a build-up of fluid in the brain.
Many babies who are born with hydrocephalus have long-term brain damage, which can cause learning disabilities, speech, vision or memory problems, or epilepsy.
Ernilasari and father Mustafa did not know about their son’s serious illness until he was born by Caesarean section. Three ultrasound scans failed to notice any problems during the pregnancy.
The family is currently at Awal Bros Hospital in Batam but doctors there say they cannot operate. There is a chance he could be moved to a hospital in Jakarta, although the family does not have any money.
Curing Gilang will likely involve risky surgery to remove one of his brains and faces, and part of his skull. The condition is known as craniofacial duplication and causes part or all of the face to be grown twice because of a problem during the egg’s division in the womb.
