Iran in Deep Mourning for Laleh and Ladan - July 8, 2003

News agencies: Iran in deep mourning for Laleh and Ladan - July 8, 2003. The spokesperson for the Iranian government said: "The Iranian nation and the Islamic government are deeply saddened. We all wished for their surgery to be successful. We prayed for the success of the surgery result, as this was their ultimate wish and desire." Many Iranians have not taken their eyes off the television screens for the past two days, as state television provided minute-by-minute updates on the surgery of Laleh and Ladan Bijani. The older sister of Laleh and Ladan fainted upon hearing that the television interrupted its regular programming to announce the death of the two. People, filled with great sorrow after hearing the news, stopped their cars and got out with tears in their eyes. A nurse at the hospital in Singapore where the surgery took place told reporters that all the staff on the upper floor were crying for the two sisters. The Guardian: Despite a painful effort to save them, the conjoined Iranian twins did not survive. Dr. Lo Choon Yong, the head of Raffles Hospital in Singapore, told reporters in a press conference: "The surgical team proceeded millimeter by millimeter throughout the night. With the extraordinary efforts of the doctors, the separation of Laleh and Ladan was successfully performed until we encountered blood circulation problems for both of them. Laleh and Ladan endured fifty hours of continuous surgery and anesthesia well. Their skulls had to be separated from the base, which is a thick bone, and this was also successfully done. At this stage, Laleh and Ladan were separated, and the surgery was still ongoing. However, around 2 PM, their blood circulation stopped moving, and unfortunately, all the specialists' efforts to save their lives failed." Laleh and Ladan came from a poor family with eleven children. When they decided to go to university, officials concluded that it was almost impossible for them to participate separately in the entrance exam, and they were accepted into the Faculty of Law at Tehran University with a scholarship. Laleh hoped to enter journalism after the surgery, and Ladan hoped to pursue a career in law. Reuters: The surgeon who refused to operate on Laleh and Ladan fifteen years ago in Germany was shocked to hear about their surgery in Singapore. Dr. Majid Sami, 66, one of the world's leading neurosurgeons, came to Germany from Iran in 1955. He, now the head of the Brain and Nerve Institute in Hanover, concluded after a month of examining the twins in 1988 that Laleh and Ladan had no chance of being separated because they shared a common artery that emptied blood from the brain into the heart. Dr. Sami said: "When I heard they were going to perform this surgery, I was very surprised. Although medical science has made advancements in the past fifteen years, the problem of the two sisters had not changed." Another team of surgeons at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany also refused to operate on the twins in 1997.