Ladan and Laleh Bijani

Ladan and Laleh Bijani (Persian لادن and لاله بیژنی, Ladan and Lale Bizani; born January 17, 1974 in Firuzabad, Iran, † July 8, 2003 in Singapore) were a grown together at the head, siamese twins. They died during the operation, which was to separate them.

Biography

Curriculum vitae

Ladan and Laleh 's parents lived at the time of birth in the Iranian city Lohrasb with about 300 inhabitants, and without running water and electricity.

Although the mother had a medical examination before birth, malformation of the twins is only determined at birth in the hospital of Firuzabad. From there they were immediately transported to the Namazi Hospital in Shiraz, then a prestigious clinic under American leadership. There the children lived for years separated from their parents, which they could only visit occasionally, until they were in 1977 transferred to Reza Pahlavi Hospital in Tehran without the knowledge of parents, the most advanced clinic Iran.

Here learned the bazaar merchants Alireza Safaian know the sisters and took the position. In the nearby city of Karaj near Tehran million, the two grew up in a residential neighborhood.

In the summer of 1977, the three year olds were presented for the first time in a German clinic to examine the possibility of surgery. The brother of the foster father was a surgeon in Erlangen and had so made ​​contact with the University Hospital Bonn. But the doctors there refused to engage as too dangerous.

On the advice of psychologists, the two girls were sent to a normal school - they were very good and popular in the classroom. The public became aware of the girl and the father learned through the media, where his children were staying. He tried to get custody, but a court rejected a return to the parents in the province.

It was the desire of both to study, but Ladan wanted to be a lawyer and Laleh journalist. She eventually studied for six years in law at the University of Tehran.

The different life desires and characters of the two - Ladan talked a lot and did something like, Laleh was often thoughtful and sometimes even depressed - made ​​their living together is always difficult, they would be separated.

Operation 2003

In many clinics, the two talked before, even in 1988 in Hannover and 1997 in Heidelberg, but no clinic saw himself able to perform the operation.

The main problem was that Ladan and Laleh for her two separate brains had only one running along the back of the head vein, in the event of separation, but each of the women needed their own. This vein was an insurmountable hurdle for the doctors.

2002 experienced both a successful separation of a couple with grown together heads in Singapore, but the babies were. They settled examine in Raffles Hospital in Singapore and the neurosurgeon Keith Goh and his medical team were finally ready to operate the two. The survival time was estimated to be 50%.

Separations of Siamese twins in adulthood are considered very risky. The team had prepared with the aid of a virtual "brain - Bench " on the operation. This " Brain Bench", a life-like three-dimensional model of the brains of the sisters, on which the physicians could practice all the steps, was developed by the National University of Singapore in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The operation began on Sunday, July 6, 2003 and was conducted by 28 doctors. The removal of bone tape between the skulls of the two twins took more than six hours.

The common vein that ran along the back of the head of the Bijani twins should be obtained after the separation of the brains Laleh. Ladan should get with the help of a vein from her thigh a bypass through which the blood should flow out of her brain. The bypass, whose construction lasted 13 hours, but proved on Monday evening as not permeable.

During the operation, the blood pressure of the Sisters swayed menacingly and there was the risk of brain swelling. It was considered to cancel the operation.

Ultimately, the Twins lost so much blood that her condition was no longer to stabilize. 53 hours after start of surgery died Ladan Bijani, one and a half hours later her sister Laleh. Official cause of death was circulatory failure due to blood loss.

Media

• Dying To Be Apart Andy Stevenson (Reg. ), ITN Factual (Prod. ), Channel 4 Television Corporation ( Distr. ), GB 2003 ( IMDb ); German death for his own life - Ladan and Laleh The dream of Bijani. ( lifepr.de; rtl2.de March 23, 2010 )