Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Delicate Surgery to Separate Year-Old Twin Girls Joined at Tops of Heads

Aired August 07, 2002 - 05:02   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: We have been following an amazing medical story, the delicate surgery to separate year old twin girls joined at the tops of their heads. The operation at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA Medical Center took nearly 22 hours. The girls are in critical condition this morning, but doctors are optimistic.

Our Gary Tuchman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two 1-year-old girls, happy and playful, the only life each has known has involved being attached head to head to the other. This was a bittersweet moment for their 20-year-old father, because Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus were only minutes away from their momentous but risky surgery.

They were wheeled into the operating room and the exhausting and pressure packed surgery began. Day turned into night and night turned into day, and after some 22 hours, doctors had succeeded in separating these two sisters from Guatemala.

DR. MICHAEL KARPF, DIRECTOR, UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: I think it went even better than I hoped for. We had serious concerns about what they would find when they actually saw the venous system, the veins that they had to separate. Apparently it was as they thought it was going to be. The separations went very smoothly. So I couldn't have asked for better.

TUCHMAN: More than 50 doctors and nurses participated in the surgery, led by pediatric neurosurgeon Jorge Lazareff.

HOUMAN HEMMATI, MEDICAL STUDENT: Considering what they went through and considering the type of the procedure that they had, they're doing extremely well.

TUCHMAN: But there was a complication.

KARPF: At 9:17, Maria Teresa was taken back to the or to deal with a subdural hematoma.

TUCHMAN: Which is a collection of blood on the surface of the brain. The medical center director declared this was not entirely unexpected and until the girls make it through several days, the situation is still life threatening. The doctors are doing their work for free. Medical expenses for the family are being picked up by the hospital and the charitable group, Healing The Children, is providing financial help for the girls and their parents.

CHRIS EMBLETON, DIRECTOR, HEALING The CHILDREN: I truly believe that we are still going to have our miracle. And the only thing I would really ask the world to do is to pray for these little girls.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Little Maria Teresa underwent five hours of surgery for the hematoma. But doctors say it concluded successfully, so both little girls are now in critical but stable condition, in intensive care, side by side, next to each other for the very first time.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That's just awesome. Two and a half hours from now, at 7:30 Eastern time, two of the key surgeons involved in that surgery, Doctors Jorge Lazareff and Henry Kawamoto, will be interviewed live on AMERICAN MORNING with Paula Zahn. So you will be sure to tune into that.

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