Nguyen Viet, a Vietnamese man born as a conjoined twin apparently due to effects from Agent Orange, died Saturday at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, his relatives said. He was 26.
Bedridden due to aftereffects of brain fever before he was separated from his brother Duc at age 7, Nguyen Viet's health had recently deteriorated and he suffered pneumonia and abdominal bleeding, the relatives said.
The twins were born Feb. 25, 1981, to a farming couple in a central province where U.S. military aircraft released massive amounts of the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
When Nguyen Viet came down with the life-threatening brain fever, a team of Japanese and Vietnamese doctors successfully separated the twins in 1988. They had been conjoined at the lower halves of their bodies and shared some organs.
The twins visited Japan numerous times before and after the surgery to receive medical treatment.
Nguyen Duc married last December, but his brother was unable to attend.
"I'm really sad, and feel like crying," Nguyen Duc said, adding he was at his brother's bedside when he was dying.
"I really wanted him to live until the 20th anniversary Oct. 4 next year of the separation operation," he said. "But now, only I can attend the 20th anniversary ceremony next year."
The twins received wide media coverage in Japan as symbols of the victims of defoliants used by the U.S. military in Vietnam.
