Real Life

Aussie conjoined twins lose fight for life

Sydney parents of conjoined twins Renee Young and Simon Howie are grieving for their “little Aussie fighters” after they lost their battle for life shortly after midday today.

The 2-week-old twins named Hope and Faith – who had a rare condition called diprosopus – died in hospital.

Born with separate brains but identical faces on one skull and sharing the same body and organs, the girls had faced an uphill battle, but during their brief lives had astounded medical experts with their strong wills.

Related: Renee and Simon’s beautiful miracle twins

The pair were born by emergency caesarean on May 8 at Blacktown Hospital before being transferred to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Renee and Simon, who are parents to seven other children, discovered during their 19-week ultrasound that their babies would be born facing a huge struggle.

“Even though there is only one body, we call them our twins,”  Simon said after the birth. “To us, they are our girls and we love them.”

Related video: The parents of Faith and Hope thank Australia.

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