Sergei Naumov

Two adorable Siamese twins were born in the district center of Koshkupyr (Horezm district of Uzbekistan). Their mother Shahlo Hudaibergenova never expected this development.

The twins were born in early July. The boys have a common liver, the fact that dooms one of them to death afterwards. That is probably why local doctors chose not to leak this sensational news of a truly republican magnitude. And yet, keeping something like that a secret is impossible, and Uzbek journalists set out for Koshkupyr.

Фото ИА Фергана.РуLocal doctors did their honest best. They attended the birth which was complicated (the infants weighed 6 kilograms!) and provided unwavering attention and care.

The infants were already released from the maternity hospital, but a nurse was assigned to them permanently.

(A photo by Ferghana.Ru news agency)

An ordinary household - not precisely expensive but traditionally neat. It is 45 degrees Celsius outside but cool indoors. The Rahmonovs, the father's parents, welcomed correspondents inside. The man of the house began the conversation but soon let his wife take over. It was Ugiljon-apa who steered the conversation from then on, while the man of the house merely nodded his consent to what she was saying. The twins' own parents remained silent nearby.

My colleague from a state-owned media outlet went to great lengths to convince the hosts that journalists were here to help. He succeeded, and journalists were eventually permitted to enter the room with the crib.

The infants were fast asleep and it was this correspondent's flash gun that woke them up. The babies squealed with such pitiful abandon that the photo session ended right there and then.

The doctors accompanying journalists set out to persuade the parents to give their consent to an operation to separate the Siamese twins. Shahlo's mother-in-law implied that they did not object to the operation. Who will operate on the infants and where remains, however, an open question. The doctors said there were no such specialists in Uzbekistan and that at least eight surgeons were needed...

A similar operation in Los Angeles a month ago involved 80 (!) specialists. Operations like that are also available in Moscow - say, in the famous clinic named after Filatov.

Horezm doctors say that the infants must be operated on before early September. The feeding regime will change in two months, and one liver will prove unable to sustain two organisms at once.