2001

A look at the 38 births and separation surgeries (25 sets of girls, 9 sets of boys, 2 sets of unknown gender) we saw reported on the Web during the year. Cases are shown in reverse chronological order:

Filipino twins Gerry and Geraldo Cordero are born sometime in 2001, conjoined at the chest. They are separated on September 15, 2002.

Another set of conjoined twins are born in the Philippines sometime in 2001, Van Dildri and Van Clovin Pasajol. The omphalopagus twin sisters are separated on May 27, 2002.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to the de Oliveira Benedito family in Brazil sometime in 2001.

In Malawi, Southern Africa, Esnart Dickson, 42, gives birth to ischiopagus tripus twin girls on December 25 at Mwanza District Hospital. They are taken to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital for evaluation and treatment but as of a January 30 report, doctors are still undecided about separating them.

Thoracopagus twin girls Kanti and Shanti Gurung are born in Nepal on December 13 and undergo separation on at Kanti Children's Hospital in Kathmandu on January 18, 2002.

Eman and Sanchia Mowatt are separated in surgery performed at the Birmingham Children's Hospital in Birmingham, England on December 11. The three-month-old girls were connected at the lower back and shared some common spinal cord and bowel. The 15-hour separation surgery was successful.

Zinzi and Zanele Kona are born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on November 28. The girls, ischiopagus tetrapus twins sharing three kidneys, are separated in surgery in Cape Town on April 18, 2002.

Loice and Christine Onziga,, thoracopagus twins, are born in Uganda on October 28. The sisters are successfully separated at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore on April 19, 2002. The operation takes more than 12 hours.

Lindsay Grace and Amanda Joy Lawlor are born in Indiana on October 17, 2001. The omphalopagus twin sisters are successfully separated March 14, 2002.

Conjoined daughters are born to the Mercado family of Colombia on October 15.

Thoraco-omphalopagus twins Najla and Naseebah Ahmed and a non-conjoined triplet, Fatemah, are born in the Sudan on September 27. Separation surgery is performed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia under the directive of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the King Abdulaziz Medical City. The KAMC has since established itself as one of the leading centers in the world for care of conjoined twins.

Pygopagus twin sisters, Eden and Ella Pyle, are born in Indiana on September 6, one of three sets of conjoined twins born there this year. Ella is stillborn and the twins are separated on September 12.

Thoracopagus twin boys are born to the Corrêa Urango family of Colombia on August 11, but survive only a few hours.

Ischio-omphalopagus tripus twins, Ruth and Rutchiele da Silva Pereira Nelson, are born in Brazil on August 3. They are separated on November 25, 2002.

María José and María Camila Garcia are born in Colombia on July 28. Thoracopagus twins, they undergo separation at the Hospital Universitario del Valle in Cali on November 21.

Also in Colombia on July 28, conjoined twins are born to the Miranda Suárez family. The boys survive only three days.

Ischiopagus tetrapus twin sisters Moe Ma Ma Aung and Moe Pa Pa Aung are born in Myanmar (sometimes known as Burma) on July 26, connected at the hip. They are successfully separated in a 14-hour surgery performed in Myanmar on August 11, 2002. According to a news report released by the Mandalay Institute of Medicine, they are the 19th set of ischiopagus twins worldwide to be separated.

Luis-Miguel and Luis-Jose Escobar Iseria, along with a non-conjoined triplet sister, are born in Colombia on July 1. The thoracopagus twins survive for just 11 days.

Twin sisters Jessica Faith and Emily Hope Clark are born at Portland's Legacy Emanuel Hospital on July 16. It's the second set of conjoined twins born in Portland in the last year. The girls weighed almost a combined 13 pounds and were born at 37 weeks. They share a heart and are joined at the torso and sadly pass away after just three days.

Twin boys Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed are born June 2, 2001 in the southern Egyptian town of Qus, near Luxor. The boys are being treated in Cairo and were flown to Dallas, Texas for separation surgery. They were connected at the skull and brain. After several delays, the successful 26-hour surgery takes place on October 12-13, 2003. The twins return home to Egypt in Nov., 2005

Twin girls, Afsa and Sauda, are born conjoined at the side of the head in Mijari, Dakshina Kannada district, India in June of 2001. The sisters undergo separation in December of 2002 at Kasturba Medical College Hospital in Attavar. Afsa dies, while Sauda is left with severe disabilities and her family cannot afford the reconstructive surgery that would give her brain a permanent hard covering.

Bethany and Alyssa Nolan are born on Thursday, May 3 at the Royal Women's Hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Remarkably, the craniopagus twins are born at the same hospital as another set of craniopagus twins, Monique and Tay-lah Armstrong. While awaiting possible separation, Bethany had heart failure, forcing an emergency 20-hour separation surgery, in which the 3 1/2-week-old girl succumbed. The report on Alyssa a year after the surgery is much better.

Also on May 3, thoracopagus twin boys Thulani and Thulile Mtshofeni are born in Cape Town, South Africa to 20-year-old Ncumisa Mtshofeni and Mawabo Polayo. Separation surgery is planned for the twins, who are evaluated after birth at Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital, but they pass away on May 31 before surgery can be performed.

A Dominican family brings their omphalopagus twin girls, Martina Mariel and Leyda Marieli Rodríguez Santana, born April 10, to Boston to have them separated. Sadly, the June 3 operation fails and both sisters die.

Omphalopagus twin boys are born to Swati Mandol of India in April.

Craniopagus twin girls, conjoined at the side of the head, are born in Suriname in South America on March 29. The sisters are brought to the VU Medical University Center in Amsterdam and extensively evaluated, but it is discovered that they share too much circulation to be safely separated so the parents ask that they be left conjoined.

A pair of girls, Sydney (Syd) and Alexandra (Lexi) are born to parents James and Emily Stark in Denver on March 9. The pygopagus twins are conjoined at the lower back and weighed a combined eight pounds at birth. Mrs. Stark is a former Miss Colorado who has posted updates in the past on Twinstuff's conjoined twins forum.

Twin girls, Cristal Paola and Paola Cristal Colon Marrero, were born in New York City on April 10.. The parents of the twins had traveled from their native Dominican Republic to New York City to deliver the twins. Weighing a combined nine pounds, the thoracopagus twins share a heart and liver. Sadly, the girls died of heart failure on April 15.

Conjoined girls are born to the Montoya family of Colombia on March 14.

Omphalopagus twins are born to the Ukpata family of Nigeria on March 8 and undergo separation on April 2 after one dies.

An operation was performed on Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to separate conjoined girls. The twins were seven months old but no other family details were provided.

Thoracopagus twin boys with one heart, Sirichai and Sirichoke, are born in Thailand on February 21.

Omphalopagus twin boys are born to the Saavedra family of Peru on February 16.

Mary Grace and Elizabeth Rix Lawler are born and pass away on February 12 in Atlanta, Georgia. The twin girls share a malformed heart and live just one hour. The twins weigh a combined 8 lbs, 15 oz. at birth. This family was also profiled in a TV special called 'Joined Together'.

Conjoined twin girls sharing a single heart are born to the Moya Vargas family of Chile on February 2 and survive for three days.

Grace Abigail (Abby) and Faith Gabriel (Gabby) Burton are born in Kentucky in February of 2001. Joined at the chest, they are separated in June, but sadly both pass away after surgery.

A set of conjoined twin girls are born on January 24 in Cheronget village, Kericho, Kenya. Tests showed the twins share a heart and interior vessels and cannot be separated. Dr. Hosea Waweru said that they had "done all the possible medical examinations on these twins and established that they are completely inseparable." Both girls ultimately pass away.

Omphalopagus twin brothers Lucas and Gabriel Perazza are born on Brazil in January and undergo separation on February 10.

A pair of conjoined boys were scheduled to be separated at the Fujian Medical University in Fujian, China in early January. The babies are linked together at the abdomen and chest.

Thoracopagus twin sisters Sarah Iolanda and Maria Eleanora are born in Italy in 2001. Separation is attempted on the girls, who share a heart, but both succumb.

[Back to Chronological Timeline of Conjoined Twins Timeline]