Son Saves Mom from Raging House Fire, but Dies After Going Back Inside to Rescue Their Family Dog

Marcos and Matheus, conjoined twin brothers born in Brazil, have died after suffering severe complications in the days following their birth.

The babies were delivered connected at the hip at a hospital in Brazil on Jan. 6, according to a news release from the Goiás State Government. About 24 hours later, they underwent colostomy and vesicostomy surgery, procedures that create openings to allow stool and gas, and urine, to leave the body. The operations were performed by pediatric surgeon Zacharias Calil, and the state government said the surgeries went well. The newborns remained in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) afterward.

Soon after, however, their condition worsened.

In a social media statement, Calil said that in the early hours of [Jan. 8], one of the twins experienced repeated cardiorespiratory arrests and died.

“Given the seriousness of the situation, we performed emergency surgery to separate the brothers, in an attempt to save the second baby. The surgery was technically successful, however, despite all the efforts of the medical and neonatology team, the second newborn also did not survive,” he said.

Calil added: “I sympathize with the family at this moment of immense pain and reaffirm my commitment to medicine based on ethics, responsibility and humanization.”

In a follow-up Instagram post, Calil described the loss as “one of the most challenging situations in medicine,” writing that moments like this underscore a duty to fight “until the very last moment” with skill, responsibility, and humanity.

Marcos and Matheus were born to Raylane Siqueira de Oliveira and Maycon Alex Rodrigues Araújo, according to the Goiás State Government. The government said Siqueira de Oliveira was 34 weeks pregnant when she delivered.

The twins were classified as ischiopagus, which the Goiás State Government described as “a rare twinning condition in which the babies are born connected at the hip and may share anatomical structures, requiring intensive care from birth.”