Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Twins Conjoined at Head Fine After Separation

Aired August 06, 2002 - 11:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: As promised, we are finally get for you the latest update on what is happening with those conjoined twins who were separated just a few hours ago.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been following it for us. Let's check in with him now.

Sanjay, what's the word?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you, Leon, the operation, as we said, is over. It looks like the two girls are recovering well. We are not sure that they're off the ventilators yet, and it wouldn't be surprising if they weren't. Certainly, they were under anesthesia for a long time, almost a full day. It might take some time before they actually let them start breathing on their own and take them off the ventilators. But from all the sounds -- talking to the doctors at UCLA and from what we're hearing, it sounds like the operation went well.

Let me just, once more, Leon, explain what it was that made this operation so challenging. If we can go to that image here for one second. You actually look here. You see two brains here. I'll point this out again. Here is the eyeball of one of the heads. So it gives you a sense of the orientation. Here is the brain. And here is a membrane that sort of separates the two brains, and that membrane is also where one of these big veins, Leon -- you and I have talked a lot about this -- one of the big veins. That's where that lived.

I will show you on the model what exactly this vein was doing that was so unusual and these twins -- the reason they actually called them conjoined twins. One of the veins from one of the babies we call the two Marias -- Maria Number One -- the vein came through here and actually went to the back of the brain of Maria Number Two. The same thing was happening now with Maria Number Two's big vein actually going into the back of Maria Number One's head. And that's what the surgeon spent so much time doing.

Leon, they were concerned about stroke, they were concerned about blood clots, they were concerned about damaging the brain. From the sounds of things, it doesn't sound like any of those things have happened. For the first time in 377 days, they will actually be able to look each other in the face, eye to eye. So it is going along pretty well from the sounds of things, Leon.

HARRIS: That's great to hear. That's great to hear. And here's hoping it stays that way.

GUPTA: We will keep you posted.

HARRIS: Good deal. All right. We will let you go because we have to get ready for the next hour.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com