Conjoined twins die 3 days after birth

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—The conjoined twins delivered by a 39-year-old Maguindanaon woman here died Tuesday morning, relatives and hospital authorities said.

Rahima Kamaong, the girls’ aunt, said the twins, delivered Saturday via Ceasarian section at the Cotabato Medical Specialist Hospital, expired at 6 a.m.

Sources at the government-run Cotabato Regional and Medical Center had confirmed the aunt’s report but the circumstances behind the twins’ death were not immediately released.

Nurhiwa and Nurkidz Kamaong, authorities earlier said, were underweight and in critical condition when they were delivered via C-section last Saturday. They had to be put under tight monitoring at the CRMC’s neonatal section.

Sultan Kamaong, the girls’ father, said the twins were fused at the chest although they had separate genitals.

He said they had planned to bring the infants to Manila for surgery to separate them but they were cash-strapped. He made an appeal to boxing icon Manny Pacquiao to help them.

“But now they’re gone, we are very sad,” Sultan said in the vernacular.

He said the twins were buried in Shariff Kabunsuan, Maguindanao, also on Tuesday.