Surgery Details and Current Photos of the Binder Twins Seperated by Ben Carson in 1987

Conjoined twins occur in about one out of every 200,000 births. Almost 60 percent of them die before birth, and an additional 35 percent don’t survive beyond a day. Of all conjoined twins, only about 2 percent are craniophagus, or connected by the head.


Which means that few surgeons have had much practice separating them. So at Hopkins, a team of seven pediatric anesthesiologists, five neurosurgeons, two cardiac surgeons, five plastic surgeons and an array of nurses and technicians spent months practicing on dolls joined at the head by Velcro, according to a 1987 account of the surgery in Newsweek.


The Binder twins were lucky in that they had two brains. It meant that the surgery was at least feasible.

“From the time we started discussing it, we all tried to keep in mind that we wouldn’t proceed with surgery unless we believed we had a good chance of separating the boys without damaging the neurological function of either baby,” Carson wrote in “Gifted Hands.”

On Labor Day 1987, the ­7-month-old twins — who, according to Newsweek had been “giggling and kicking since entering Hopkins on September 2” — went in for surgery. For four hours, heart surgeons inserted “hair-thin” tubes into their veins and connected them to heart-lung machines that would keep them alive through surgery. Plastic surgeons sliced into their scalp, removing the bone tissue that connected them. The cardiologists then cut open their chests and removed small amounts of tissue from their heart to use later to construct new veins.

Doctors dropped the babies’ body temperature down to 68 degrees, stopping their hearts and allowing surgeons to operate without blood flow — the first time anyone had tried such a strategy for this type of surgery. A big clock on the wall counted down from an hour: Every minute without a heartbeat beyond the 60-minute mark threatened to cause irreparable damage to the boys.

“When the hour is up, just turn the pumps back on,” Carson told his team, according to his book. “If they bleed to death then they’ll have bled to death, but we’ll know we did the best we could.”

After Long gave him back his scalpel at the pivotal moment, Carson severed the primary thin blue vein that connected the twins. The doctors rapidly set about creating new veins from the heart tissue they had removed earlier. One twin was finished in 57 minutes, the other in 63.

This is an image of the baby boys 27 years on

'Children Without Heads, Body Parts Everywhere' — Syrian Civilians Describe 'Unthinkable Atrocities' in Ongoing War

Human rights group Amnesty International has released a new report describing the "unthinkable atrocities" taking place in the ongoing civil war in Syria. Some civilians shared of hellish scenes such as "children without heads" in the city of Aleppo.

Several witnesses to the various attacks on civilians in the past months and years shared their testimonies with Amnesty International in the detailed 74-page report, revealing horrific occurrences.

"After the bombing, I saw children without heads, body parts everywhere. It was how I imagine hell to be," said a 30-year-old factory worker, talking about the aftermath of an attack on the al-Fardous neighborhood in 2014.

A number of different factions are battling each other for control in the war-torn Syria, from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, to terror group ISIS, and a host of other rebel groups intent on taking the government out of power.

In March, humanitarian agency Oxfam International noted that over 220,000 peoplehave been killed in the civil war so far, which has raged on for over five years.

"This spiralling catastrophe is a stain on the conscience of the international community," Oxfam wrote in its report.

Amnesty's research alleges that both government forces and the various rebel groups are committing war crimes on a daily basis, with civilians caught in the middle.

BBC News reported that the latest attack occurred on Sunday, when a barrel bomb hit a nursery school in the Saif al-Dawla district and killed at least 10 people, including four children and a teacher.

Assad has repeatedly denied that his forces have used barrel bombs or chemical weapons on its own people, but has been accused of doing so by the U.S. government and other western leaders.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has backed efforts looking to broker peace in the region, and revealed earlier this year that he's willing to hold talks with Assad on the issue.

"We have to negotiate in the end," Kerry said. "What we're pushing for is to get him to come and do that, and it may require that there be increased pressure on him of various kinds."

Amnesty alleges that between January 2014 and March of this year, government aircraft launched continual attacks using barrel bombs on rebel bases in Aleppo. The bombs reportedly targeted at least 14 public markets, 12 transportation hubs, 23 mosques, 17 hospitals and medical centers, and three schools.

The human right's group said in its executive summary that the violations committed both by government and rebel forces in Aleppo go against U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at stopping the violence, and constitute war crimes.

"In some cases, the actions of the Syrian government amounted to crimes against humanity," the group said.

"Civilians in opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo have been bombarded in their homes, hospitals, schools, public markets and places of worship in air attacks launched by government forces. The majority of attacks in this campaign have involved the use of 'barrel bombs' — large, improvised explosive devices, which are delivered from helicopters and consist of oil barrels, fuel tanks or gas cylinders that have been packed with explosives, fuel and metal fragments to increase their lethal effect," it added.

"Amnesty International has also concluded, based on cases examined in this report and prior work, that many non-state armed groups have engaged in abductions and hostage-taking, as well as the arbitrary detention, torture, and other mistreatment of prisoners in Aleppo. Such acts would constitute war crimes."

'Gifted Hands' Neurosurgeon Ben Carson Says He's Running for President, 'Even Though I am Not a Politician'

Ben Carson Announces Candidacy for President

It looks like God is having his way with Ben Carson. Calling himself a "reluctant warrior" Sunday, the retired neurosurgeon and conservative star revealed that he's running for president, a decision he said he wouldn't make unless God told him to do it.

"I'm willing to be part of the equation and therefore, I'm announcing my candidacy for President of the United States of America," Carson, one of the world's most celebrated neurosurgeons told Jeff Barnd of WKRC Cincinnati Sunday. He is expected to make a formal announcement in Detroit, Michigan on Monday.

Carson joins three other candidates in the Republican field who have already declared they are seeking the party's nomination for president in 2016: first term Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

In a video highlighting Carson's campaign slogan "Heal Inspire Revive," the neurosurgeon is also presented as an inspiring figure who will shun divisive politics and lean on conservative values that made America great.

"If America is to survive the challenges of the modern world, we need to heal, we need to be inspired and we need to revive the exceptional spirit that built America," said the narrator in the video.

"We have the fortitude to heal, the imagination to inspire and the determination to revive our American dream - one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We can see this through together with a leader who derives his strength from God and his duty from the American people," he added.

Though a relative political newcomer, Carson, 63 whose rags-to-riches story is chronicled in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, became a favorite among conservatives after criticizing the policies of the Obama administration in the presence of President Barack Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013. He had suggested however that he would not enter the political fray unless God told him to do it and it appears he got his answer.

"Many people have suggested to me that I should run for president, even though I'm not a politician," said Carson.

"I began to ask myself why are people clamoring for me to do this? I represented a lot of the same thoughts that they have," Dr. Carson says. "I'm not 100% sure 'politics as usual' is going to save us. I think we are in a severe problem…a problematic situation."

Carson's work in the medical field has earned him several honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008, the highest civilian honor in America. He holds more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees, is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Science, the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans, and many other organizations according to bencarson.com.

Speaking at Al Sharpton's National Action Network's convention in New York City last month, Carson declared that he still believes in America as it is a place where dreams still come true.

"You know America remains a place of dreams. You have a lot of people with dreams who are trying to get into this country. Not too many people trying to get out of here, so that means it's still a pretty good place," he said.

"As a youngster I dreamed to become a physician. And that was perhaps a lofty dream considering where I was coming from. But still one that I was able to accomplish. And one that I think young people today can still accomplish if they believe that they can do it and not that they are different," he added.