BEIJING —
A hospital in southwestern China says conjoined twin girls with a single body and two heads have been born at its facility.
A staffer surnamed Wang at Suining City Central Hospital in Sichuan province says the girls were born Thursday.
Wang said Tuesday the parents, who are farmers, did not want to have the babies at first, fearing they could not afford to keep them alive. She said they transferred the twins to a hospital in the nearby metropolis of Chongqing to be examined by experts.
The local Huaxi Metropolis Daily newspaper reported the twins weighed 9 pounds (4 kilograms) and measured 20 inches (51 centimeters).
They have two spines and two esophaguses and share other organs. Doctors were quoted as saying it would be nearly impossible to separate them.
The babies are suffering from a host of health problems.
“The doctor said they are in critical condition,” father Liao Guojun told CNN by telephone, as his babies cried in the background in a hospital intensive care unit.
“The girls suffer from more than 10 illnesses right now, and their chance for survival is very low.”
