Dogaru Twins

The twins were born on January 13, 2004 by Caesarean section, six weeks premature, in a hospital just outside Rome, Italy, to Claudia and Alin Dogaru.  The parents knew from sonograms that the twins were joined, and were asked whether or not they wanted to terminate the pregnancy.  They decided to go through with delivering the twins, and leave the rest up to God.

Anastasia and Tatiana are craniopagus (joined at the head). The doctors in Italy gave the Dogaru family little hope, and told them that Anastasia and Tatiana would not survive.

Claudia was at home, cherishing every moment she had with the girls, when she had a flash of hope - seeing a news segment about the successful separation of the Egyptian conjoined twins, Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim at Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas.

Family and friends immediately began reaching out for help from the World Craniofacial Foundation (WCF), the organization that helped bring the Egyptian twins to the United States and supported them throughout their stay, and to the surgical team in Dallas that separated the boys.  Anastasia and Tatiana arrived in Dallas for evaluation in October 2004, and will be arriving in Cleveland at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in April 2007.

The girls are joined at the back of the head, and they share a circulatory system and some brain matter.  Anastasia is the larger twin in front, and Tatiana is the smaller twin in the back.  The girls can walk and talk, but they suffer from a variety of medical complications, making the separation more complex and difficult to plan and execute.