Doctors at the Vatican’s pediatric hospital successfully separated conjoined twins whose skulls were fused back to back, in an exceedingly rare surgery for an equally rare congenital defect. The twins, Ervina and Prefina Bangalo, were born on June 29, 2018, in Mbaiki, the Central African Republic, with their heads attached and sharing critical blood vessels around their brains.
Twins conjoined by the skull are extremely rare, approximately one in every 2.5 million live births, the hospital said, adding that in Europe in the past 20 years there were only two successful cases of separating twins joined at the top of their skulls.
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In This Story: Central African Republic
The Central African Republic, or Centrafrique, is a landlocked country in Central Africa.
It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest and Cameroon to the west. The CAR covers a land area of about 620,000 square kilometres (240,000 sq mi) and had an estimated population of around 4.7 million as of 2018.
As of 2020, the CAR is the scene of a civil war, ongoing since 2012.
In This Story: Conjoined Twins
Conjoined twins are twins that are born with their bodies physically connected. Conjoined twins occur once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births. Approximately 70 percent of conjoined twins are female.
Conjoined twins share a placenta and amniotic sac, although these characteristics are not exclusive to conjoined twins, as there are some non-conjoined twins who also share these structures in utero.
Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874) were brothers born in Siam (modern day Thailand) who traveled widely for many years and were labeled as The Siamese Twins. Chang and Eng were joined at the torso. In modern times, they could have been easily separated. Due to the brothers’ fame and the rarity of the condition, the term “Siamese twins” came to be used as a synonym for conjoined twins.
In This Story: Vatican
Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State, is the Holy See’s independent city state, an enclave within Rome, Italy. The Vatican City State, also known as The Vatican, became independent from Italy with the Lateran Treaty (1929), and it is a distinct territory under “full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction” of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity of international law, which maintains the city state’s temporal, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 825, it is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population.
As governed by the Holy See, the Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state (a type of theocracy) ruled by the pope who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1437), the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.
Within the Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world’s most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from the faithful, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications.
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