Kiron: the two headed baby from Bangladesh

The media loves to deal in the wacky, the macabre, and the freakish. It’s good for ratings. And you can see any manner of weird things on TV nowadays.

But what has really freaked me out today is a story of cojoined (Siamese) twins born in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka on Monday.

The twins were not only cojoined but also dicephalus – or in crude terms a “two headed baby”. Two heads side by side on one body. Two arms, two legs, and the internal organs shared. Great fodder for the media in other words. And they are milking the story for all it is worth of course.

So rare is this case that the parents in Bangladesh even gave the baby a single name – Kiron – seemingly unaware of the fact that they were “dealing with two separate people in one package” and NOT just one person.

But deformed Kiron will not be shunned – like AIDS sufferers – in that part of the world. Oh no – he is already a minor celebrity and is gaining quite a following:

Kiron was placed under police protection because hospital officials felt that the baby and his mother, 22, were at risk from the anxious crowd of 150,000 that had gathered to see him, gynaecologist Mohamad Abdul Bari said Wednesday.

150,000? Wow: that’s a lot of people. But why are they so interested?

Well, for the simple reason that such babies are often hailed as “living gods” in Bangladesh and India (where Hinduism is the main religion).

The most famous example being the eight-limbed girl named Lakshmi who was born in India back in October 2007.


Who could ever forget her eh? She was revered by many for being the reincarnation of the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Vishnu. Quite.


Of course, in the West things are different and we don’t believe in that sort of stuff. But we did use to have freak shows where such unfortunate people could show off their unique physical attributes. One of my personal faves is Frank Lentini. He had three legs and two willies but still went on to have four kids!! What a man!