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CNN Live Today
Twins Recovering from Hours of Surgery
Aired August 07, 2002 - 10:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We have got another medical story that we are following here this morning as well. This one not as much about danger as it is about hope. Two Guatemalan sisters are recovering from the surgery that separated them yesterday, and although they are still in critical condition this morning, doctors are very optimistic about their future.
For the latest, let's check in now with our national correspondent, Gary Tuchman -- morning, Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, good morning to you, and it has now been just over 24 hours since their momentous surgery was completed, and two little girls from Guatemala, connected at the heads for 377 days and now separated for one, are doing as well as can be expected.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(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, UCLA MEDICAL CENTER DIRECTOR: 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; also inside the operating room, medical students, including this man.
HOUMAN HEMMATI, MEDICAL STUDENT: It was very emotional. A lot of people were crying, the doctors, nurses alike, even the students, some of the cameramen had a couple of tears they had to brush off. So it was a very emotional sort of scene.
TUCHMAN: But there was a complication.
KARPF: At 9:17, Maria Teresa was taken back to the operating room 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, HEALING THE CHILDREN DIRECTOR: 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Maria Teresa underwent five hours of surgery for that hematoma. These are the same doctors and nurses who were up for 22 hours before this. They were up a long time. But the surgery went well. Both girls are now together. Nobody in this hospital wants to make any promises, but the chief neurosurgeon told us this morning that he is -- quote -- "absolutely optimistic." The girls are still under general anesthesia, but expected as early as tomorrow or Friday that we might see their smiles. It might not be us who sees their smiles, it will be the doctors and nurses, but we expect to get videotape of that particular event. We can tell you that their parent are smiling right now. They are in the hospital, spent the night here, and they are very happy with how things have gone -- Leon, back to you.
HARRIS: I will bet they are. I will bet they are. That's great. Thanks, Gary. Gary Tuchman reporting live for us this morning.
Now, let's get some medical perspective, a closer to home for us, and turn now to CNN Medical News Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is here this morning to talk about this hematoma.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, that was the big concern yesterday, and certainly after an operation of that size, that length, 22 and a half hours, we have been hearing so much about that, not entirely unexpected there would be some bleeding on top of the brain. They call it a subdural hematoma. Actually between the brain and the outer layer of the brain, sometimes blood can accumulate in there either because the blood actually becomes thin from such a long operation, or because some of the blood vessels actually bleed. Let's show an animation of exactly what happens there, if we can roll that. But basically, some of the veins that are on top of the brain, actually, that have just been operated on, some of those, you can see that they start to bleed there. That blood actually accumulates. When it accumulates like that, the problem is that blood will start to put pressure on the adjacent brain, the subdural hematoma, as they call it, can increase in size, and if nothing is done about it, it can be a real problem, and that is part of the reason, Leon, that they got those -- that little girl, I should say, back to the operating room so quickly, drain that blood clot. It did take five hours to do that, and that is in part because not only do they have to take out the blood that had accumulated, they also had to make sure that there was no other places that there was still bleeding going on, and stopping all that as well.
But it sounds like they are both doing well, and they are saying critical but stable. Those are more than just terms. Stable basically meaning that they are not changing in terms of how they are doing, but critical meaning that they could change very quickly, and that's why they are in an ICU, that is why they are on ventilator, that is why they have lots of people watching them to make sure no sudden changes occur.
HARRIS: OK. And once again, what is the most critical period, I guess, in this recovery for them? How long, do you think, before doctors can finally say, they are totally off the hook? Is it like a year, two years, what?
GUPTA: Well, I think as far as critical condition, as far as their lives, their lives still going on the way they are now, I would say it is still over the next few days is still critical. Before they get off the ventilator, I would say everyone is still going to be very, very cautious and classify them as critical.
After that, though, Leon, you are absolutely right. It could take -- we are talking about months, not days, maybe even years before you really know exactly how well these girls did. That seems like a long time, but I will give you an example. The neurosurgeon yesterday was saying, at the age of 4 or 5 years, they may not have quite caught up, still, to their counterparts of that age. Maybe when they get to be 6 or 7, though, they start to catch up with a normal 6 or 7-year- old girl.
But needless to say, sounds like -- from everything the neurosurgeon were saying, everybody at the hospital is saying that they are going to recover just well.
HARRIS: All right. Let me ask you this. This is a purely -- I know this is going to be thought of, perhaps, as a superficial question, but when you have to stretch their scalps the way that they had to be done with the balloons that were put in under the skin as we talked about yesterday. Will their hair grow in normally, or will their hair grown in thinner, or what? Or is that something that your body normally adjusts to?
GUPTA: No, that is a very fair question. Something they had to think about, and in fact, they think about where exactly they are going to place these balloons, and which skin they are going to expand. The skin that they expanded is actually hair-growing skin, so it should grow hair pretty normally, still, in the back of the head, an important place, no doubt, for men and women.
Sometimes Leon, I think what people think about, sometimes taking skin grafts from other parts of the body and actually placing that on the head. That skin will not grow hair properly. This is a different situation, though, because they are actually taking the skin from that same area and that should grow hair well.
HARRIS: OK. So we won't be talking about twin Rogaine. That's good.
GUPTA: All right. We will keep you posted on this one.
HARRIS: All right. Good deal. We will talk with you later on about it as well. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, great as always.
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