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CNN Live Today

Conjoined Twins Were Developing as Normally as Possible

Aired August 06, 2002 - 13:43   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As we have been telling you, doctors have successfully separated 1-year-old twin girls who were joined at the top of their heads. That risky 20-hour procedure ended this morning.
CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is now with us once again to take your e-mail questions, and we received a lot of them.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A lot of interesting ones for sure.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Let's get down to it. Reid wants to know, "To the cost of one to one and a half million dollars, who is going to pay for this operation?"

GUPTA: That's a good question, and a fair one. $1.5 million is sort of the high end of what people are expecting this to cost. We have mentioned already, Healing the Children, a not for profit organization out of Spokane, Washington, actually had the children flown up. They are taking donations to try and help offset the cost of this. A lot of the service is being donated from UCLA Hospital, including some of the -- obviously, the surgeons have donated their time, but also some of the costs of the operating room and the hospitalization. So, through a lot of various means, I guess this number will be paid.

PHILLIPS: All right. And Barbara from Ontario wants to know: "It seems to me that the majority of conjoined twins are female. Is this true, and if so, why?"

GUPTA: That is a good observation, Barbara, and you are absolutely right, conjoined females, 3-1 is usually the ratio. Not entirely sure why, but let me just tell you that the reason a conjoined twin forms is that when the egg splits, and there would have otherwise been twins, with conjoined twins, the egg doesn't split until at least 12 days after conception, and that often times leads to a lot of sharing of organs. In this case, as we saw, sharing of part of the brain.

PHILLIPS: Sean from Las Vegas wants to know, "Is it true that any person that undergoes any kind of surgery involving this has little or no chance of a normal or normal brain functions afterwards or throughout their life?"

GUPTA: I would say that is not true, in fact that one of the goals and one of the hopes for these two girls is in fact that they will have a normal life, and I should point out as well that these two girls had very normal developmental -- had developed normally before this, including their brain function. They were acting very much like 1-year-olds, doing everything except for walking, for obvious reasons.

PHILLIPS: All right. Cheryl wants to know, "It is reasonable to assume that the twins neck muscles have been unable to develop correctly due to the inability to actually sit up until now. Will physiotherapy be used to assist the twins in developing these muscles?"

GUPTA: Absolutely, and not just the neck muscles, but they haven't been able to use their shoulders or really their arms or hands. These girls have actually been picking up things with their feet because of that. So they are going to need a significant amount of physio -- physical therapy to not only teach them to get those muscles, but teach them how to use their hands like 1-year-olds should be doing.

PHILLIPS: All right. Julie wants to know, "Where were developmentally before the surgery, and what kind of progress are they expected to make in the future?"

GUPTA: Besides being conjoined twins, besides actually being connected, conjoined at the head, they were very normal developmentally. Again, they weren't walking, again, for obvious reasons. But in terms of their brain function, in terms of their speaking, in terms of a lot of things that you expect out of of a 1- year-old, these two girls were pretty normal. They are expected to develop normally, even after this operation.

PHILLIPS: All right. I saved a couple more for the 2:00 hour, is that all right?

GUPTA: Yes, sounds good. We'll be back.

PHILLIPS: All right. See you then. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

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