Baghdad begs for help in saving Siamese twins

[leftchick]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2014465,00.html

DOCTORS in Baghdad have appealed for international help in saving at least one of the Siamese twins born to an Iraqi mother last week. She “begged the world” to save her children.
Kara and Zara Rasheed are joined just above the hip. Each baby has her own heart, lungs and liver, but they have only three kidneys and share a lower intestine. Only one pair of legs is working.

Dr Zaid Jaafar said the Fatima al-Zahra hospital did not have the facilities to save the twins. An operation to separate them would probably have to be performed abroad, he said. “I think one of them has a good chance to live,” he added. “The other has only a low chance.”

Majheda Rasheed, 20, the mother, agreed that the twins had to be moved from the hospital, which was previously known as the “Saddam hospital for delivery”.

“I am begging the world to find a solution for my young babies,” she said. “That would be worth all the pain I’ve had. I’m asking all countries to help me. I hate to see them like this while I cannot do anything for them.”

[varkam]

1. If they're cute...

then I'd say they have a good chance.

[sasha031]

2. Iran should help

they are so close and would have the facilities.
the US would just politicize it.

[KamaAina]

3. Their best bet is probably Cuba

which has already embarked on an ambitious program to bring modern eye care to the world's poor.

Too bad "Baby Noor" already used up the U.S.' quota for poor, pathetic, photo-op-worthy little Iraqi babies, or they might have had a chance. :sarcasm:

[Mabus]

4. Sorry, baby Noor just got saved

so the US isn't interested in helping any more. :sarcasm:

[Divernan]

5. Where are all the anti-abortionists who would have blocked her aborting?

All those drivers with the "It's a child, not a choice" bumper stickers? Oh, that's right - they don't give a shit about the plight of impoverished children who desperately need not just a highly specialized surgical procedure, but simply food and water and childhood innoculations. They devote their miserable lives to ranting about the ""pre-born". Sort of "We Heart Your Child UNTIL It Is Born." After that, we are blind to any suffering suffering or disasters which may befall them.

[whatelseisnew]

6. Could the cause have been DU?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/23/155046/944

...Dr Hassan showed charts of statistics showing that her hospital had been recording a high rate of birth defects and cancers. These had been increasing alarmingly since 1990. A chart tracked the incidence of the birth defects and cancers by category. All categories had increased dramatically. Spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages, in the first trimester had also increased by similar rates.

The doctor said if anything, the cases at her hospital are under-estimated, because some local families will take their children to Baghdad hospitals for treatment. Other families believe cancer to be a fatal disease, so care for their children at home until they die, rather than seeking treatment.

Photos of dozens of birth defects followed. I'm not in the medical field, but I HAVE seen pictures of conjoined twins, armless thalidomide babies, spina bifida, hydrocephalic infants, and so on.  These were by far the most shocking I've ever seen. Two of them were alive; the rest had died shortly before or after birth. The pictures showed missing or deformed limbs; internal organs outside of the bodies; huge tumors bulging from their abdomens or heads; gruesome skin lesions; no upper skull or brain; malformed faces with just one eye, deformed eyes, or cleft lips and noses. One had what looked like eyes turned inside-out bulging from its eye sockets.

Okay, enough of that. Every expectant family has a high level of anxiety, as you might expect. The new mother's first question is not: "Boy or girl?" but "Normal or abnormal?" Sometimes her family requests the baby's body be hidden from her, because it's too awful for her to see.

The defects are thought to be the result of depleted uranium in the environment, which comes from munitions made in the USA. ..