Doyen Performs Conjoined Twins Operation, 1902

Eug?ne-Louis Doyen (December 16, 1859 - November 21, 1916) was a French surgeon. Doyen was a skilled and innovative physician. He was a pioneer in the use of electrosurgery and electrocoagulation. He had a keen interest in photography and cinematography, and performed early experiments of color film, micro-cinematography and stereoscopic film. He produced numerous films of operations, including a craniectomy, an abdominal hysterectomy, and a surgery for separation of conjoined twins. Radica and Doodica Neik were born in India in 1888. They were xiphopagus twins, joined at the chest by a band of cartilage, similar to Chang and Eng. The people of their village saw them as symbols of divine wrath and chased the family out of town. Their father wanted to separate the twins himself and was about to do so when a local official stepped in and rescued the girls, turning them over to a local temple. The monks of the temple looked after the twins and gave them their names. In 1893 they were purchased from their parents by Captain Colman, a showman from London, who took them to Europe to be exhibited. In 1902, Doodica developed tuberculosis and the sisters were separated by Doyen with the hope of saving Radica. Doyen filmed the twins surgery as La Separation de Doodica-Radica. Though the operation was considered a success at first, Doodica died shortly after separation, and Radica also succumbed to tuberculosis in 1903, having lived the last year of her life in a Paris sanitorium. Although his films were popular at medical conferences abroad, they were harshly criticized by his contemporaries in France, who felt that the integrity of their profession had been compromised. He died in 1916 at the age of 57

Picture No

10803115

Media ID

47603311

Size

4500px x 3066px (2.7MB)

Credit

©Photo Researchers / Mary Evans Picture Library

Source

Photo Researchers