Senegalese Father Keeps Conjoined Daughters Together After Refusing Surgery That Would Have Cost One Life

Ibrahima Ndiaye learned at the birth of Marieme and Ndeye in Dakar in May 2016 that he was the father of conjoined twins. The girls have separate brains, hearts, lungs and spinal cords. They share a pelvis and one pair of legs, a liver, bladder and digestive system, and three kidneys. Doctors in Senegal did not expect them to live more than a few days.

Ibrahima, then a managing director in tourism, contacted hospitals worldwide. With help from a Senegalese first-lady foundation, he brought the infants to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in 2017. Surgeons there have separated more conjoined twins than any other centre. They later concluded that Marieme’s weaker heart meant she would not survive a split, and that the girls’ circulation was so intertwined that neither might live apart.

Ibrahima refused to choose one child over the other. “It was killing one of my children for another. I can’t do that,” he said. His wife returned to Senegal to raise their other children. He stayed in the United Kingdom, lost his job, lived as an asylum seeker and was housed in Cardiff. He has spoken of relying on support services while providing round-the-clock care.

The twins defied the original prognosis. By 2024 they were attending mainstream primary school in south Wales with classroom aides, celebrating birthdays with classmates, and remaining under joint care from GOSH and the Children’s Hospital for Wales. Ibrahima calls them warriors. Their condition is still described as life-limiting; their father says they are together and equal.

Source: BBC News / BBC Wales documentaries The Conjoined Twins: An Impossible Decision and Inseparable Sisters; The Guardian and Great Ormond Street Hospital statements on Marieme and Ndeye Ndiaye and Ibrahima Ndiaye