The medical community in India was in for a great surprise when a baby with two heads, three arms and two hearts was born to a couple in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh.

The parents of these children, Shaheen Khan and her husband Sohail, who are residents of Javra, had been expecting two fully formed twins but on March 28, the mother delivered a child with two heads.

Medical science refers to this condition as dicephalic parapagus in which two infants are joined by one torso. This often leads to a stillbirth. In a miracle, these two conjoined twins have survived so far and are admitted in Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore while their mother continues to be in Ratlam’s district hospital.

Dr. Brajesh Lahoti of MY Hospital told the media: “These kinds of cases are rare and the condition of babies remains uncertain, especially in the initial days. Due to this, we have kept them under observation. We have not planned for any surgery on the patient.”

Twins born with two heads, but sharing one body are extremely unusual form of conjoinment and this happens in only one in a million births.

In 2019 in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha district, a baby with two heads and three arms was born to Babita Ahirwar and her husband Jaswant Singh Ahirwar.

In case of Dicephalus parapagus twins, they are joined side to side at the pelvis and part or all of the abdomen and chest but they have separate heads. There may be two, three or even four arms and two or three legs.

The case of conjoined twins happens when a fertilised egg begins to split into two embryos a few weeks after conception but the process stops before competition.

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