Baby dies hours after surgery to remove rare defect

Published: 2004-02-09

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite surviving surgery to remove the undeveloped head of a conjoined twin atop her own head, an 8-week-old girl bled to death early the next day at the Dominican Republic hospital where she was being treated. Rebeca Martinez survived the 11-hour operation Feb. 6 in which two teams of surgeons removed the malformed second head. But hours later, she started to bleed, according to her doctors. That apparently led to a heart attack and she died from loss of blood, one of her surgeons, Dr. Jorge Lazareff, told reporters. She was buried during a private funeral Feb. 7. Rebeca was born in mid-December with the partially formed head of an undeveloped conjoined twin attached to her own head. The condition, called "craniopagus parasiticus," required removing the parasitic growth as the only chance Rebeca had for long-term survival, according to doctors. The malformed head would have prevented Rebeca's brain from developing normally, said Dr. Santiago Hazim, hospital medical director.

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