Crunch talks on conjoined twins op

Doctors will hold a crunch meeting tomorrow to decide whether to operate this week on the conjoined twin girls born to a Shropshire teenager.Faith and Hope Williams were delivered by Caesarean section on Wednesday and are now being cared for at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London.

Their mother Laura Williams, of Harlescott, Shrewsbury, has made medical history by becoming the world's youngest mother of conjoined twins at just 18.

She said the moment she first saw the children, who were born at University Hospital, London, was "brilliant" and "amazing".

Doctors at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital had warned Mrs Williams and her husband Aled that the twins might not survive after a 12-week scan revealed that they were joined.

But the couple, who live with Laura's mother Wendy Rackham, refused to have a termination.

Mrs Williams said: "They have all their own limbs and their own hearts."

Her husband added: "No words can describe it.

"I was so excited and happy and when I heard them screaming, it was like the world had lifted off my shoulders."

The twins were christened one-hour later then transferred to Great Ormond Street, one of the leading European centres for the care of conjoined twins.

Nuffield professor of paediatric surgery at the hospital, Agostino Pierro, said the children's hearts had significant abnormalities that could require surgery.

He added: "The current concern is that the two hearts and the joined circulation raise a risk that the children might suddenly deteriorate and need emergency separation surgery.

"Although the team would prefer to leave surgery until the children are older and stronger, but increasingly we believe that this may be risky.

"A meeting will be held on Tuesday to decide whether to attempt a planned separation this week, but it will be the parents who finally decide."

By Rhea Parsons