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CNN Live Today

Doctors, Family Optimistic About Twins

Aired August 08, 2002 - 10:32   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Los Angeles, doctors are reporting progress in the recovery of two Guatemalan twins separated in a risky operation. One of the little girls opened her eyes this morning. The 1-year-olds are still heavily sedated and in critical condition, but doctors are optimistic about a full recovery.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And while that situation is going on here stateside, for the twins' family, this operation has been nothing short of miraculous. And in their small village back in Guatemala, there are prayers of thanksgiving as well as hopes for a speedy recovery. Here now is our Rosemary Church with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prayers. This is how the days go for the relatives of Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa, the conjoined twins who were separated in an operation in Los Angeles on Monday. The Quiej-Alvarez family isn't reluctant to appeal to a higher authority for the twins' speedy recovery.

LOYDA DE JESUS HERNANDEZ, GRANDMOTHER (through translator): I kneel down every day with my spouse and my children, and it gives me great sadness that my granddaughters are suffering. Now, I hear they have been separated, but I only see it on television.

CHURCH: On a borrowed TV set, and accompanied by many friends and neighbors, they get the news about the girls.

WENCESLAO QUIEJ, GRANDFATHER (through translator): I'm delighted that my granddaughters were successfully operated on, and I'm thankful to God that there were no complications.

CHURCH: The twins mother, Alba Leticia, carried the girls to term in this part of southern Guatemala. The parents expected the twins to be born here with the assistance of a midwife. The first place she went was this clinic, and these doctors delivered them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It was a very powerful experience for me. We were only expecting one baby, and when we saw the second one, and in such circumstances.

CHURCH: The news of the surgery in the United States has attracted the attention of many Guatemalans. It is front-page material for the local papers. And here, in the twins' hometown, the community only thinks of giving them a warm welcome. But for the grandparents, it is enough that the two girls have simply survived.

Rosemary Church, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Doctors say it could be several days before we know if the girls suffered any brain damage from the surgery.

Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now to give us a medical update on how they are doing -- good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I will tell you, no one can soon forget these indelible images now of these two twins first conjoined, and then separated. Just looking at those, I think they may be some of the best images, really, of the whole year. But, Daryn, as you say, it's been three days only now since the operation. The twins are not out of the woods yet. In fact, one of the doctors from the hospital had this to say just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL KARPF, UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: They're still very much in a critical phase, they are still in the postoperative period. They've had a very large amount of anesthesia. They have been on paralytics for a long period of time. So, there are multiple different risks from pneumonia to difficulties with the -- with infection. So, it's early. We're optimistic. They're showing progress. We've got our fingers crossed. We are doing everything we can, and we have to stay very cautious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And they are calling the twins critical but stable, meaning that they are still in an ICU, they are still on a ventilator. One of the twins did open their eyes, but critical in the sense that they could possibly turn, really, at any minute, and that's why so many people are looking after them.

But Daryn, aside from the twins themselves. This is -- we've been hearing so much about the parents as well. The father, a 20- year-old banana picker, the mom was in labor for eight days before delivering these babies, and then had to travel over six hours to go visit them when they were taken to an ICU. For the first time, really, since the operation, they spoke as well about their experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Again, he's very happy that his children are separated, because it was very difficult to take care of them when they were attached, so he is just happy that they made it through the surgery and that everything is going well so far.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it. Thank you very much. OK. He will take you back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And you can see the administrator there actually trying to protect the parents. No doubt a very traumatic experience for parents, certainly, giving away your two children to doctors, foreign doctors, in this case to try and literally take them to the brink of death, bring them back hopefully in a condition better that which they were given, and it looks like that is the case.

Interesting thing about conjoined twins, you know, they are very rare, as we've seen five cases only in the last ten years, one out of every 50-60,000 births. Seventy percent of them are girls, 30 percent boys, and the first operation in this country was done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 1974.

KAGAN: And at UCLA, they have never done this kind of surgery, so why was that the good place to go, because they know how to do all the kinds of things it takes to do this surgery?

GUPTA: Right, and I think one of the surgeons put it best. You know, while they haven't done that particular kind of operation before because they are so rare, they've done all the parts of that operation that really make up that operation. There are many parts to it. The vascular part of it, the blood vessels probably the most challenging part of the operation overall, and they were very skilled and experienced with that.

Dr. Lazareff, we have been hearing a lot from him, sort of a hometown hero in Argentina, from where he came as well.

KAGAN: So many questions and things to ask you about, not just me and Leon, but our viewers as well. And we still want to hear from you about the remarkable story of surgery. Go on cnn.com and e-mail Sanjay your questions. There he is. He is here, he is there, he is everywhere.

And we are going to answer your questions -- or, actually, Sanjay is going to answer your questions.

GUPTA: Yes, and I have some props.

KAGAN: You have props.

GUPTA: I will bring the props.

KAGAN: He's bringing props, folks, so make the questions good.

But we want to shift gears and talk about another story, nothing to do with the twins. Scientists in London say they have isolated a hormone that makes people feel full, and that could play into, perhaps, treating obesity.

GUPTA: Right. And this is actually a big issue. People are sort of tongue-in-cheek a little bit about this now, but obesity is a huge problem in this country. It's no laughing matter. Sixty percent of adults are overweight or obese, 15% of children overweight or obese. Scientists in England decided to research this a little bit, and actually find that there is a hormone that is released in the intestine that is being called the third helping hormone, or the hormone that actually makes you feel full.

Let's see if we have an animation that basically sort of describe what happens here, but basically, when you eat a piece of food, the food actually goes down into your intestines. This hormone is released when you have eaten a certain amount of food. Then hormone, then, actually goes back up to the brain and sends a signal saying, you're full, we're full, and that is what the scientists are focusing on.

What they do is they actually looked at 12 people, gave half of them the hormone, half of them just a placebo, and then put them in front of an all-you-can-eat buffet, and found that the ones that had the hormone ate a third less than they would have otherwise eaten, and felt 40 percent less hungry than otherwise. Very early in the trials, only 12 people have actually been studied so far.

PHILLIPS: So they actually inject it into the people's stomach?

GUPTA: You can actually just inject it into the bloodstream, but you do have to inject it. This isn't a pill yet, or a nasal spray. That's something that they are looking into as well.

KAGAN: See, my fear on that is that people saw the big needle and went, Oh...

GUPTA: Not hungry any more.

KAGAN: Yes, lost my appetite. No thank you. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Yes.

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