Why a baby in Indonesia is born with two faces

Gilang Andika is a 2-month-old boy from Batam, Indonesia, born with two faces and two brains, but only one body and one skull, reports Newsflare. This is an extraordinarily rare and extreme case of conjoined twins, which occurs when there is a complication in the division of the egg at the beginning of pregnancy and that the embryos do not separate normally. .

According to the report, Andika's mother, Ernilasari Andika, did not know that her pregnancy was anything unusual before birth. And despite three scans, doctors at Chamita Sahidiya Panbil Hospital did not detect any abnormalities.

If it was not heartbreaking enough, because of her condition, Andika also suffers from a sometimes fatal accumulation of fluid in the brain called hydrocephalus, which can cause excessive pressure on the brain. This, in turn, can induce learning disorders and epilepsy, as well as problems with vision, memory, speech, physical coordination and attention.

Her parents now hope to be able to undergo surgery. This is not the only problem they are currently facing.

To cure Andika, doctors may have to perform an extremely high-risk operation to remove a brain and a face, as well as a part of his skull. According to the latest report, the doctors said that they are unable to get through the surgery and that it is unlikely that Andika will live long because of her condition.

The united twins are extremely rare, and the twins gathered at the head (aka craniopagus) are even rarer, with only one in 2.5 million births. This particular type of craniopagus is called craniofacial duplication or diprosopus (which means two faces in Greek) and describes a condition where all or part of the face is duplicated on the head.

Profile of diprosopus was that of Hope and Faith Howie in Sydney, Australia, in 2014. The twins survived for 19 days, but even in this short span of time, their parents noticed that the girls were showing distinct personalities – Hope enjoyed a nap and Faith tended to cry a little more, The Sunday Morning Herald reported at the time.

According to Gizmodo, only 35 cases of diprosopus were reported throughout human history before 2014.

Credit: Newsflare / SiLelo