Iranian twins die in separation surgery

July 8, 2003  |  SINGAPORE (AP) -- Iranian twins Laleh and Ladan Bijani, joined at the head for 29 years, died within 90 minutes of each other Tuesday after doctors separated them but were unable to control their bleeding in the unprecedented surgery.

In their homeland, people cried out in shock or wept as state television broke into normal programming to announce their deaths during the third day of surgery in Singapore.

more here. Hearing this on the radio this morning made me very sad. Maybe it's because I'm a twin. I think I had heard that the twins accepted the risk of one or both of them dying because they said they didn't want to live conjoined anymore. So much work went into trying to improve these womens' lives but it wasn't enough. Sadness.