2006

This is a look at the 36 sets of births and twin separations we saw reported on the Web during 2006 (29 sets of girls, 6 set of boys, 1 set of unknown gender). Cases are shown in reverse chronological order:

Omani craniopagus twins Safa and Marwa al-Jardani, along with a non-conjoined triplet brother, are born in December of 2006 and currently await separation surgery in Riyadh.

Angelica Johana and Kelli Tatiana Oquenda Grajales are born in Colombia on December 13. Conjoined at the heart, they both pass away on March 26, 2007.

Twins Jacob and Jordan Heck are born to Valerie James and Robert Heck III in Mankato, Minnesota, in November of 26. Joined at the abdomen, Jacob and Jordan are successfully separated soon after birth at the Mayo Clinic. However, while the family is staying at a Ronald McDonald House in Rochester, Jordan is taken to the hospital for 16 broken bones and Mr. Heck is accused of physically abusing the boy. As of March 2007, Mr. Heck faces a court date while the twin boys remain in foster care.

Craniopagus conjoined twin sisters Krista and Tatiana are born Oct. 25 in Vancouver, BC. 21-year-old single mom Felicia Simms and the twins father, Brendan Hogan are from the rural town of Vernon, BC. Late April, 2007 updates indicate it's unlikely the twins will be separated.

Dicephalus twin girls Naila and Laila Asmaul Husna are born in Indonesia on October 21. The family lives in Tlekung-Gangsiran and the twins share two heads, four arms (two fused), two chests, two hearts, and two legs. The twins undergo surgery to remove their cumbersome inner pair of arms, but will not be separated.

Pygopagus twin sisters Allyson and Avery Clark are born Oct. 20 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. They are successfully separated in Utah on June 19, 2007.

Thoracopagus twins María Fernanda and María Victoria Alarcón Arroyo are born in Venezuela on October 5. They are separated on March 18, 2007.

Also in Indonesia, Deva Eka Syamitha and Devi Eka Syamitha are born to Marce Louk Panggi, 23, in Bali on October 4. Rare parapagus tripus twins, the sisters share a heart and both die on October 10.

Sisters Ananda Oktavia Ramadani and Andini Oktavia Ramadina are born to Puniah and her husband Sukandar in Grobokan Village, East Java, Indonesia, on October 1. Conjoined at the chest and sharing a malformed heart, the sisters die during an operation to separate them at Daerah Public Hospital in Surabaya, East Java, on November 2. Their father asks that the operation continue so that "Dani" and "Dina" can be buried in separate caskets in their native village.

Craniopagus twin sisters Sofía and Mariana Rodríguez Ocampa are born in Colombia on September 19. Separation is attempted on January 17, 2007, but sadly both sisters die.

Thoracopagus twin sisters Yesa and Yesi are born in Kodya Palembang, Indonesia, to Herdiana and her husband M. Yunus on September 18. They are brought to the RSCM in Jakarta and undergo an operation to insert tissue expanders under their skin, the first stage in separating them, on April 28, 2007.

In Namibia, sisters Monika Ngendinomuwa and Taimi Talohole Paulus are born conjoined at the chest and heart on September 11 and both die on October 13.

Thoracopagus twins Panwad Tiyenjai and Pantawan Tiyenjai are born in September in Thailand. They are successfully separated in surgery at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital on February 20, 2007 despite the fact that the girls had shared a connected heart.

Twins Matthew and Andrew Goodman from Seaford, Delaware are born on August 31. They are scheduled to be separated in surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on August 29, 2007. The twins are joined at the diaphragm and share a liver and other organs and still weighed just four pounds each at age 1.

Abygail and Madysen Fitterer

Omphalopagus twins Madysen and Abygail Fitterer are born August 8 in Minnesota. The twin sisters are successfully separated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on Jan. 3, 2007 and return home with their family to their Bismarck, North Dakota home in Feb., 2007.

A set of dicephalus dibrachius twin girls are born to an Indonesian couple, Nuryati and Mulyadi, on August 6, 2006, and given only one name, Syafitri, because they have only one heart. Nuryati does not know she is pregnant with twins until she is seven months pregnant, at which point an ultrasound does not detect that the twins are conjoined. Syafitri live only about twenty days.

Omphalopagus twin girls are born in Arua, northern Uganda, on August 1 to Ms. Acuu, wife of Jacob Acema. The girls, Grace and Winnie, are unable to be separated and die on August 29.

Omphalopagus twin girls, Ángela Leticia and Ángela Corina Piló Xicay are born in Guatemala on July 23. They are separated on August 17 although Corina passes away at that time.

Twin boys Ram and Lakshman are born July 16 to Ram Prasad and Prabhawati Kohl in India, joined at the chest and abdomen. They are successfully separated in surgery on May 29, 2007, despite difficult odds.

Parapagus twin girls are born in Sri Lanka on July 3 to the Sayeed family.

Hasan and Husan Kamiljanovs Hudaibergenova are born in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan in July. Joined at the chest by only a narrow ligament, they are separated in Russia on November 11, but sadly Hasan dies eight days later.

On July 30, thoracopagus twin girls with the surname Ali are born in India but die within an hour of birth.

Danika and Danielle Lowton are born to Indian parents, Nitesh and Kribashnee Lowton, at South Africa's Arwyp Medical Centre on June 21. The sisters are joined at the side of the head, facing in opposite directions, and as of January 2007 have undergone several minor operations in preparation for separation surgery. The twins began separation surgery on Sept. 7, 2007.

Omphalopagus twin girls Pantawan and Panwad Thiyenjai are born in Thailand in June and undergo successful separation on April 24, 2007.

A pair of pygopagus parasiticus twins are born to Veronica Driciru, 27, and Joseph Adaku of Azapi Village, Arua District, Uganda on May 27, 2006. One of the twins is severely malformed and dies soon after birth, and a three-hour emergency operation is performed at Arua Hospital in order to save the healthy twin.

Twin brothers Mateo and McHale Shaw are born May 10 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. They undergo 20 surgeries between them in their first year, including successful separation surgery eight months after their birth.

Faith Anne and Vanna Love Rowell are stillborn in South Carolina on April 12. The twin girls were omphalopagus.

Omphalopagus twin girls Zareen and Aafreen are born in Thane, India on March 1 to Nasir and Afsana Shaikh. The sisters, who share a liver, are successfully separated on September 24 in a six-hour operation at Nair Hospital in Mumbai. The parents, a rickshaw driver and his wife, cannot afford the surgery, so the hospital generously cares for the twins free of charge.

Conjoined twins are born in Nigeria to the Maishayi family in March and undergo separation on March 21.

Brothers Huang Long and Huang Jialong are born in China on February 25. Joined at the abdomen, they undergo successful separation on May 18.

Conjoined twin girls within a set of triplets are born on February 18 in Pakistan. The thoracopagus Zaman girls pass away on Feb. 20, survived by a triplet brother. The parents had survived a devastating October 9 earthquake in their native Kashmir before the births of the triplets

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to Naheed of Islampura, Pakistan on January 31. The sisters share a single heart and both have cleft palates, and survive just one day.

Omphalopagus twin girls are born in South Africa on January 18 to the Muhali family. They are separated after the death of one of the girls. The surviving twin is named Surprise because the mother was not expecting conjoined twins.

Craniopagus twin boys are born in India in January to the Ahmed family. One of the brothers is fully formed while the other is an incomplete parasite. The boys pass away on Jan. 23.

Anita Rismayutin Rayahu and Yunita Rismayutin Lestari are born in Imogiri, Bantul, Indonesia on January 10, to 26-year-old Umiyatun and 33-year-old Riswanto. Sadly, their mother Umiyatun dies of blood loss after giving birth to the sisters. The ischiopagus tetrapus twin sisters undergo separation on August 5 in Yogya. Further reconstructive surgery is performed on Anita on April 26, 2007

Fatima and Zahra Zaheed, ischio-omphalopagus tripus twins, are born in Iraq on January 26. They are successfully separated at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh on December 2.

[Back to Chronological Timeline of Conjoined Twins Timeline]