The 29 year old twins Laleh and Ladan Bijani’s multiple earlier requests for separation were turned down because their brains had fused and they shared a major vein meaning that a separation would likely kill both of them.
In 2002 Singaporean neurosurgeon Dr Keith Goh, believing that new imaging and computer technology had decreased the risks to an acceptable level agreed to take on their case.
Using new 3D modeling techniques, Dr Goh and his team, which later included US neurosurgeon and future presidential candidate Dr Ben Carson, practiced the high risk surgery for months.
On July 6th With the twins eager to proceed the surgery started and was going relatively smoothly until around the 40th hour when a previously undetected tangle of blood vessels was discovered.
Dr Carson advocated a halt and reassessment but Dr Goh believed the risk of stopping was higher than the risk of continuing.
The tangle was severed and the twins were separated for the first time at 1:30pm on the 8th but attempts to clamp the veins off dragged on with both twins suffering major blood loss.
Ladan died first at 2:30pm and at 430pm Laleh was pronounced dead
