Second Head Removed From Afghan Baby Girl
 

1:37PM BST 26 Sep 2013

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Three-month-old Asree Gul (L) and her twin sister as they lie on a bed at a hospital in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad.

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The girl – named Asree Gul (new flower) and one of a pair of twins – was admitted to a hospital in the eastern city of Jalalabad with an extra head attached to her scalp, chief surgeon Ahmad Obaid Mojadidi said.


"Her mother gave birth to twins, two girls. One girl was in good health but the other had an abnormality. She had an extra head attached to her head," Dr Mojadidi said.


"We separated the extra head from her body," he said, a week after the operation which he described as the most sophisticated ever carried out in the impoverished city.


He said, however, that the baby was not in good condition after the operation.


Nematullah, the father of the infant who goes by one name, said he had not expected his baby to survive the operation.

"The doctors saved her life. I thank them," he told the AFP news agency.

Afghanistan, lacks modern health care after decades of war.

But facilities have improved thanks to billions of dollars pumped in by the international community since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.

Asree Gul was discharged to her family on Wednesday.

Dr. Ahmad Obaid Mojadid performed the operation free of charge because it would have been too expensive for the family.

"We don't have very developed equipment," he told the BBC. "But we are very happy to have conducted the operation successfully."