Baby girls Rital and Ritag Gaboura, who are 11 months old, were separated on 15 August after four operations at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. LONDON — A British charity says 11-month-old twin girls who were born with fused heads have been successfully separated in a series of operations in London. Facing the World says Rital and Ritag Gaboura were born in Sudan with the tops of their heads stuck together. Twins born joined at the head — known as craniopagus twins — occur in about one in 2.5 million births and successful attempts to split them are rare. However, the condition can lead to serious medical problems and the charity said the twins' parents asked for help funding surgery to pull the two apart. The charity said Sunday the two were finally separated last month and appear to be healthy. London's Great Ormond Street Hospital said it handled the surgeries. The Sudanese infants were flown to the UK by the charity Facing the World. Conjoined twins are very rare and only 5% of conjoined twins are craniopagus, which means they are fused at the head. About 40% of twins fused at the head are stillborn or die during labour and a third die within 24 hours. The nature of the twins' condition meant significant blood flowed between their brains. Ritag supplied half her sister's brain with blood whilst draining most of it back to her heart. It was a life-threatening situation because significant drops in brain blood pressure would cause neurological damage. The children were born by Caesarean section in Khartoum, Sudan. The girls' parents, who are both doctors, said: “We are very thankful to be able to look forward to going home with two separate, healthy girls. We are very grateful to all the doctors who volunteered their time and to Facing the World for organising all the logistics and for paying for the surgery.
