Life goes on for parents of dead conjoined twins

DAGUPAN CITY– For parents of conjoined twins recently born at the government-owned Region 1 Medical Center here but died the following day, the twins were a blessing and a reminder from God that life must go on.

“They are now in heaven,” said Samuel Cuadro, 25, father of the female twins named Sarah Grace and Sarah May, after popular singer-actress Sarah Geronimo, of whom their mother Sarita Prestoza, 22, is a big fan.

Cuadro, a farmer, said he knew his twins would not live long yet he considered them as God’s blessings to him and his live-in partner. The twins were born Dec. 28 but died the next day.

The twins had two heads and just one set of hands and feet, but had two hearts, in a rare case of parapagus dicephalus, according to Dr. Michael Canto, spokesman of the Region 1 Medical Center.

Canto said the hospital has had four cases of conjoined twins of different types, including Cuadro’s twins, which he added were the third case of parapagus dicephalus in the world.

The conjoined twins weighed 3.8 kilograms at birth. One of the heads was described as apparently weak and “incubated.”

Cuadro and Prestoza are not yet married, and the twins were their first-born. He said his family does not have a history of having twins.