Patrick and Benjamin Binder (born February 2, 1987) were

conjoined twins Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...

, joined at the head, born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in early 1987, and separated at

Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Johns Hopkins Children's Center (JHCC) is a nationally ranked, pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital located in Baltimore, Maryland, adjacent to Johns Hopkins Hospital. The hospital has 196 pediatric beds and is affiliated the Johns Ho ...

on September 7, 1987. They were the first twins to be successfully separated by

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

Ben Carson Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he ...

, of

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. For this operation Carson was able to prepare by studying a three-dimensional physical model of the twins' anatomy. Carson described this separation as the first of its kind, with 23 similar attempted separations ending in the death of one or both twins. Although Carson was able to separate the boys, they were both left profoundly disabled. The ''

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'' reported, in 1989, two years after the separation, that Patrick remained in a "vegetative state", following the surgery. He never came out of his coma. According to a 2015 ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' article, he "died sometime in the last decade". Benjamin recovered to a certain extent. The ''Washington Post'' reported that Peter Parlagi, the twins' uncle, said their father was emotionally unable to ever handle them, or share in their care. He said the twin's father became an alcoholic, spent all the couple's funds, and left their mother destitute and alone. She was forced to institutionalize them. In a 1993 interview, their mother, Theresia Binder, described guilt for agreeing to the operation that ruined the boys' prospect of ever having any quality of life. According to the Washington Post's 2015 interview with Parlagi, Benjamin never learned to speak or feed himself, but he does enjoy visitors, and being taken for walks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binder, Patrick and Benjamin 1987 births Living people Binder, Benjamin German twins