Rape victim has conjoined twins

A 13-year-old girl from Western Mindanao, who was raped last year and got pregnant as a result, gave birth to a pair of conjoined twins at a private hospital in Cebu City last Tuesday, the apparent product of that savagery.

The girl - whose identifying circumstances, as well as that of her mother who accompanied her, are being withheld by The Freeman - was in a state of apparent shock from both the birth and the realization of what she gave birth to and refused to be interviewed.

Only her mother did the talking, but even then, she had been very sparing with the details.

The doctor who attended to the birth could not be contacted to provide information on the condition of the babies.

The twins, both girls and delivered by caesarian section, were conjoined from mid-chest down to the navel. In the absence of official information, there was no way of knowing as of press time if they shared any vital organs.

It was the mother who said the girl was raped last year when she was 12 by a 20-year-old neighbor.

The girl turned 13 only last October.

The mother said the girl was watching tv in the house of the suspect when she was attacked.

Charges were filed but the mother said the suspect managed to flee before he could be arrested and the case has consequently stalled.

The mother said they chose Cebu City for the girl's delivery on being advised by well-meaning friends that better hospital facilities are available here. It was not clear if they already knew the girl was carrying twins.

The mother and the girl had actually been in Cebu since March 10 and tried to find a place to stay with relatives. On failing to locate them, they sought and were granted shelter at a seminary.

She said she and her daughter are expected to check out of the hospital tomorrow but intend to leave the newborn twins at the hospital because they require specialized medical attention.

She said the doctor left for Manila to consult with experts and explore the possibility of surgery to separate the twins.

Dr. Remedios Bacasmas, director of The Freeman Foundation, yesterday visited them at the hospital to offer assistance in raising money for the surgery if it materializes.

Conjoined twins are monozygotic multiples that do not fully separate from each other due to the incomplete division of the fertilized ovum. Such individuals will be connected at certain points of the body, and may share tissue, organs or limbs.

Monozygotic twinning rates are the same throughout the world; they are not affected by heredity, ethnicity, infertility treatments, maternal age, or any of the other factors that affect dizygotic twinning. No one really knows what causes monozygotic twinning.

However, the majority of conjoined twins are female. Again, there is no identified reason for this. It is not known whether more female twins are actually conceived, or if simply more female conjoined sets survive the pregnancy.

Conjoined twins occur in an estimated one in 200,000 births, with approximately half being stillborn. The overall survival rate for conjoined twins is between 5 percent to 25 percent. Conjoined twins are more likely at 75 percent to be female.

Some pairs, depending on the degree of conjunction in particular, the degree to which they share internal organs, can be separated successfully by surgery.