Conjoined Turkish twins celebrate first birthday

By Ayse Yildiz

ANTALYA, Turkey (AA) - The Evrensel family celebrated on Friday the first birthday of their conjoined twins, Derman and Yigit, in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, Turkey.

Omer Evrensel built a special cradle where his twin sons sleep, as their mother, Fatma, cares for them day and night with help from their 13-year-old older brother, Kursat.

Conjoined to each other from the top of their heads, the brothers are unable to crawl without hurting each other, nor face the same direction at the same time.

They are unable to watch cartoons on the same television, and one often smiles while the other cries.

"The doctors said they would kill them in the womb. We did not accept," Fatma told Anadolu Agency.

"It has been a very difficult period for us, but even more so for our children. They want to walk and play, and they cannot eat anything except formula. We just want them to have a successful medical operation [for separation] so they can be healthy," she added.

"All the doctors we asked said one of the twins would not live, and the other would have 80% chance of survival, though he would risk paralysis or blindness," she said, noting that operations to separate such conjoined children were only conducted a couple of times abroad.

"I hope they can get an operation as soon as possible, we only wish for our babies' health," Omer said, stressing that they were very happy to celebrate the twins' birthday.

She expressed gratitude to Turkish officials as well as First Lady Emine Erdogan, who visited the family while they were in the hospital.

*Writing by Burak Bir