Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Surgery Separates Conjoined Twins

Aired August 07, 2002 - 06:02   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time in their 1-year- old lives, conjoined twins are sleeping apart. We have been following this fascinating story. Doctors spent 22 hours separating the girls who were connected at the tops of their heads.

Our Eric Horng has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time in their young lives, 1-year-olds Maria Teresa and Marie de Jesus rested in separate beds. Surgeons called the 22-hour operation a success, though one of the twins had to be rushed back into surgery because of bleeding on the surface of her brain. A doctor said the complication was not unexpected and called the next few days critical for the twins.

DR. MICHAEL KARPF, DIRECTOR, UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: We are minute to minute, hour to hour, day by day, we just can't get ahead of ourselves.

HORNG: Prior to surgery, doctors were optimistic the conjoined twins, born in Guatemala, would be separated successfully. Tests revealed the two babies had separate brains, normal in size and structure, separated by a membrane, meaning surgeons didn't have to cut through brain tissue.

A medical student who witnessed part of the surgery called the experience "miraculous."

HOUMAN HEMMATI, UCLA MEDICAL STUDENT: The second that the two twins were physically separated from one another, everyone had goose bumps, doctors, nurses, students, even some of the cameramen who were in there taping it. People started crying, doctors included, cheering, screaming, clapping.

HORNG: A nonprofit group called Healing the Children arranged the surgery, flying the girls and their parents to Los Angeles from Guatemala. Doctors at UCLA donated their services, though the procedure will still cost at least $1 million, paid for by the hospital and donations.

Only a handful of similar cranial separations have ever been performed, and not all twins have survived. If this separation proves successful, these two resilient girls, affectionately called the "Little Marias," may soon have a new nickname, the Little Miracles.

Eric Horng, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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