ANAJAS, Brazil – A baby boy with two perfectly formed heads was born in Brazil this week, the country's media reported.
The 10.1-pound baby was delivered by emergency C-section early Monday in Anajas, in the northeastern Para State.
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The baby's 23-year-old Brazilian mother was admitted to the Hospital Municipal de Anajas in severe pain, Diario do Para reported.
She did not have any ultrasound exams during her pregnancy and was made aware of the baby's condition only a few moments before the birth.
The infant shares one heart and one set of vital organs, but both heads have started nursing normally, doctors told the media.
Joseph Brazil, the obstetrician responsible for the delivery, said the child has "an amazing appetite."
"Despite all the problems we have as a small interior hospital we managed to save both mother and baby, which was our aim," the hospital's director, Claudionor Assis de Vasconcelos, told reporters.
"And for us, it was a great surprise to find out that the child was in really good health," she added.
The baby's mother, who has other children, has bonded well with her newborn and wanted to take the child home straightaway, she added.
However, the mother and baby were taken Wednesday by air ambulance to the city of Belem so doctors could carry out further tests.
Neila Dahas, obstetrician and gynecologist at the Santa Casa de Misericordia Hospital, said the baby was born with two heads as a result of "a delay in the division of the egg."
"I want her [the mother] to understand that she does not have a monstrous son, a son with two heads, but she has two sons."
The mother named them Emanoel and Jesus.
Dahas said that it "would be absolutely impossible" to separate the two heads as their body shares a liver, heart, lungs and pelvis.
This is the second case of a two-headed baby being born in northeastern Brazil this year.
Sueli Ferreira, 27, gave birth to a child with two heads in Campina in Paraiba state but the baby died a few hours later because of lack of oxygen to one of the heads.
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