Conjoined twin girls with one heart born in India

Doctors are caring for conjoined twin girls who have been born sharing a single heart.

It is not yet known if the twin girls can be separated. Picture: SWNS

The one-day-old girls are joined from chest to stomach and are currently under observation at a hospital in Cuttack in the Indian state of Odisha.

Weighing just 8lb 8oz, they are alive and doctors aren't yet sure if they will be able to separate the pair, following their birth yesterday.

Parents Renubala and Pradeep Behera are yet to name the girls, who are now being looked after at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute for Paediatrics.

Tests will be conducted in the coming days to see whether the sisters can be separated via surgery.

Supt Prof Saroj Satpathy said: "This is a case of thoracopagus.

"The two girls have one heart as they have the same pulse and blood pressure.

"Separation is almost impossible in such cases as there might be sharing of several other vital organs and survival chances become less."