A 25-year-old woman gave birth to a baby boy with two heads at MGM Medical College and Hospital in Sakchi here in the small hours of Tuesday.

The newborn’s health deteriorated fast after birth. He was shifted to the neonatal intensive care unit, but lost his battle for life by 8.15pm. His mother, Sunita Gope, a resident of Kowali in Potka block of East Singhbhum, is stable.

Deputy superintendent of MGM hospital Nakul Prasad Chaudhury said it was a congenital anomaly that was nearly always fatal. “The baby was in NICU, but was not doing good. This is the first such case in our hospital,” he said.

Craniopagus parasiticus is an extremely rare type of parasitic twinning occurring in around four to six of 10 million births. In this congenital anomaly, the parasitic twin’s head with an undeveloped body is attached to the head of a developed twin.

Fewer than a dozen cases have been documented in literature. Most infants with this condition are either stillborn or die shortly after birth.

Shahdev Gope, the father of the baby, said his wife Sunita had had a C-section delivery around 12.30am.

“This was our first child. We were hoping for one healthy baby, not twins and definitely not something like this. I had spoken to doctors and they said nothing could be done. We would have raised him the best we could had he survived this rare birth defect,” Gope, who runs a small dairy at Kowali, said.

Burns death

A 65-year-old woman, who was admitted to MGM hospital with burns last week, died on Tuesday. Nasima Begum, a resident of Azadnagar in Mango, sustained injuries while cooking on a gas stove.