The Hindu : Conjoined twins separated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 07, 2002

International

International

Conjoined twins separated

LOS ANGELES AUG. 6. Surgeons separated 1-year-old Guatemalan twins joined at the head, a risky procedure that took about 20 hours to complete, a doctor said early on Tuesday.

Dr. Houman Hemmati, who assisted in the surgery, said the separation appeared to be successful.

``Everyone had goosebumps at the end of the procedure,'' Dr. Hemmati told NBC television's `Today' show. ``People were cheering, people were clapping, people were crying.''

``It was more than optimistic, it was overjoyed and we can't wait until we see these kids playing, laughing, crying like normal baby children,'' he said.

A hospital spokesman said the girls had been separated but he gave no details, saying doctors were still in surgery.

Dr. Hemmati said one girl lost a lot of blood during the operation but was given transfusions and ``everything looks great''.

``There was absolutely no major trouble that was unforeseen in this procedure,'' he said. The surgery on Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus Quiej-Alvarez began on Monday afternoon, about six hours after they were wheeled into the operating room at Mattel Children's Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The girls, born in rural Guatemala, were attached at the top of the skull and face opposite directions. Cases like theirs occur in fewer than one in 1 million live births.

``Our goal is to get two twins walking out of here — maybe not walking, but crawling,'' Dr. Henry Kawamoto Jr., a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at UCLA, said earlier.

The riskiest part of the surgery was expected to be separating the veins that connect the girl's heads.

``Once those areas are exposed, there has to be a disconnection of these two systems. The major issue is how are these two brains going to tolerate that,'' UCLA neurosurgeon, Dr. Itzhak Fried, said.

If doctors cannot reroute the flow of blood to the brain of each twin, either could be at risk of stroke, Dr. Fried added. While the two share bone and blood vessels, their brains are not meshed.

Physicians have performed cranial separations only five times in the past decade. Not all twins have survived.

Healing the Children, a non-profit group, arranged to bring the sisters from Guatemala to Los Angeles for the $1.5 million operation.

The girls' parents, Wenceslao Quiej Lopez and Alba Leticia Alvarez, gave them kisses before the operation began, said UCLA spokeswoman Roxanne Moster.

``The girls were smiling a lot and were very playful,'' she said. — AP

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