Bengal boy is one of the first recorded cases of parasitic craniopagus (5 photos)

This baby was born in 1783 in a tiny Indian the village of Mundul Gaut. And in general it was an ordinary boy, if it were not for one thing: from the baby's head grew another, alive.





The shocked midwife who took birth considered the newborn spawn of darkness and threw him into the fire. But they were close sensible people: the strange child was saved. The boy just got off minor burns.

Parents, on the contrary, saw in the appearance of an unusual child the blessing of the gods and a chance to get out of poverty. And they left Calcutta, to show the child to people and get paid for showing it.



The business project was a success and brought parents a decent amount of money. When the fame of the miracle spread throughout the country, the family became invite to private parties in the rich and famous families.

The second head of the child was turned in relation to the main one. The fusion was in the region of the crown. It ended in a short stump type of underdeveloped neck. Both heads were the same size, similar, but parasitic is slightly smaller, with a reduced jaw and tongue and flattened ears.



Judging by eyewitness accounts, she lived her own life and had a range of emotions. If the boy cried, she could smile or say nothing. Stay awake when the baby is sleeping.

The child's condition was generally satisfactory. It is forbidden say that he felt bad or hurt. Possibly a certain he experienced discomfort, but the kid did not know another life, and compare he had nothing to do.



The baby died by pure chance at the age of 4 years: mother went away for water, and at that moment the child was bitten by a cobra. two-headed many anatomists wanted to get the boy, but the parents were people deeply religious and refused to sell the corpse. However, subsequently the burial was nevertheless opened, the remains were stolen and transported to England. The skull is still in London, at King's College. surgeons.



The physician who performed the autopsy noted in his notes that the brains of each The head was detached and without damage. The state that a moment in time people considered a favor or a curse of the gods, now known as parasitic craniopagi. This is a very rare form of fusion. Siamese twins, in which the head of an underdeveloped parasitic a twin without a body grows to the head of the main, normal one. Type very rare and occurs no more than 3 times in 5 million newborns.

Most often, parasitic craniopagi are born dead. or die in the first hours after birth. Almost all attempts divisions fail. In 2004, an attempted separation attempted on a two-month-old girl from the Dominican Republic, but she died from loss of blood. A year later, a similar operation was carried out a small resident of Egypt, who is not yet a year old. The intervention was successful, but the baby died of an infection a few weeks later. More recently, a couple of years ago, a case of parasitic craniopagus was recorded in Romania, but the child died shortly after childbirth. As for the Bengal boy, besides a slight mental He did not have any developmental delays. And if not coincidence, he had every chance of surviving to adulthood.