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CNN Live Today

Shared Dreams

Aired June 11, 2003 - 10:09   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now we also have this morning for you a story of shared dreams of separate lives. Two Iranian sisters born joined at the head say that they are elated that surgeons in Singapore have now agreed to an historic operation to separate them. But this procedure could prove to be fatal to either woman, maybe even both of them.
Our medical news correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with a look at this fascinating case, right down your alley as a neurosurgeon. This is fascinating. What do you make of it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, it's a medical first, a surgical first. This has never been done before. What we're talking about here is obviously separating the conjoined twins. A lot of focus on the Guatemalan twins recently. Obviously much younger, the brain much more resilient at that young age. These two women, the Bijani twins as you pointed out, Leon, from Iran, have been this way for 29 years. They've lived independent lives as much as they could, being connected, being conjoined. They've gone to go to school, graduate education, obviously both very intelligent women. You can see the pictures of them there.

But every single consideration about them, the way they hold their heads, the way that they brush their hair in the morning, what this does to one woman's spine versus the other woman's spine, all these things, from the very dramatic considerations of an operation like this, to the most minute details, are going to make this an extremely challenging operation.

HARRIS: Break it down for us. How do you draw the distinct between this case, because it looks so similar, to the Guatemalan twins in California. With them being younger, does it that much of a difference?

GUPTA: It is. Because the brain at that age, the age of the Guatemalan twins, the two Marias that we heard so much about, very slow developing. Whatever damage, whatever sort of operation, operated areas of the brain can still sort of bounce back, if you will, from some of that sort of thing.

As you get older, all of your organs, including your brain, becomes less resilient to the sort of change. Take a stroke, for example, is much more dramatic in an older person versus a younger person. The same principle applies to this operation. They are going to have a much harder time sort of bouncing back.

And, Leon, I think you're absolutely correct what you said at the beginning, statistically, it's more likely that both of them will not survive this operation. That's a gloom and doom sort of fact that these surgeons are obviously thinking about. That's statistics. It's hard to say, because it's never really been done before in adults.

HARRIS: All right, well, let me ask you this then, if you say the odds are against them if they have the surgery, what if they don't have the surgery? How long are their odds for surviving in this condition?

GUPTA: Well, it's interesting. There have been cases of people who have actually survived for a long time. They've actually survived for 29 years, and pretty healthy, and very tough to live your life like that. That question, why now? Why do this now was asked to the twins, and this is what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LADAN BIJANI, CONJOINED TWIN: I want to continue the law, to become lawyer and -- but my sister wants to find journalist like you. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of dreams to do after surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: It's a very interesting situation. I mean, they've been connected, conjoined if you will, for 29 years but they have their own independent dreams, one wanting to be a journalist, one wanting to be a lawyer.

If I can break down one more sort of esoteric point about this. If I can explain this as well as I can, but is one connected on left side of her head and one is connected on the right side of her head. Now the right side of the brain is normally responsible for creativity and the left side of the brain responsible for speech. Now, the lawyer actually is more likely to sustain damage to the right side of the brain.

HARRIS: That's incredibly intriguing.

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






Aired June 11, 2003 - 10:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now we also have this morning for you a story of shared dreams of separate lives. Two Iranian sisters born joined at the head say that they are elated that surgeons in Singapore have now agreed to an historic operation to separate them. But this procedure could prove to be fatal to either woman, maybe even both of them.
Our medical news correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with a look at this fascinating case, right down your alley as a neurosurgeon. This is fascinating. What do you make of it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, it's a medical first, a surgical first. This has never been done before. What we're talking about here is obviously separating the conjoined twins. A lot of focus on the Guatemalan twins recently. Obviously much younger, the brain much more resilient at that young age. These two women, the Bijani twins as you pointed out, Leon, from Iran, have been this way for 29 years. They've lived independent lives as much as they could, being connected, being conjoined. They've gone to go to school, graduate education, obviously both very intelligent women. You can see the pictures of them there.

But every single consideration about them, the way they hold their heads, the way that they brush their hair in the morning, what this does to one woman's spine versus the other woman's spine, all these things, from the very dramatic considerations of an operation like this, to the most minute details, are going to make this an extremely challenging operation.

HARRIS: Break it down for us. How do you draw the distinct between this case, because it looks so similar, to the Guatemalan twins in California. With them being younger, does it that much of a difference?

GUPTA: It is. Because the brain at that age, the age of the Guatemalan twins, the two Marias that we heard so much about, very slow developing. Whatever damage, whatever sort of operation, operated areas of the brain can still sort of bounce back, if you will, from some of that sort of thing.

As you get older, all of your organs, including your brain, becomes less resilient to the sort of change. Take a stroke, for example, is much more dramatic in an older person versus a younger person. The same principle applies to this operation. They are going to have a much harder time sort of bouncing back.

And, Leon, I think you're absolutely correct what you said at the beginning, statistically, it's more likely that both of them will not survive this operation. That's a gloom and doom sort of fact that these surgeons are obviously thinking about. That's statistics. It's hard to say, because it's never really been done before in adults.

HARRIS: All right, well, let me ask you this then, if you say the odds are against them if they have the surgery, what if they don't have the surgery? How long are their odds for surviving in this condition?

GUPTA: Well, it's interesting. There have been cases of people who have actually survived for a long time. They've actually survived for 29 years, and pretty healthy, and very tough to live your life like that. That question, why now? Why do this now was asked to the twins, and this is what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LADAN BIJANI, CONJOINED TWIN: I want to continue the law, to become lawyer and -- but my sister wants to find journalist like you. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of dreams to do after surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: It's a very interesting situation. I mean, they've been connected, conjoined if you will, for 29 years but they have their own independent dreams, one wanting to be a journalist, one wanting to be a lawyer.

If I can break down one more sort of esoteric point about this. If I can explain this as well as I can, but is one connected on left side of her head and one is connected on the right side of her head. Now the right side of the brain is normally responsible for creativity and the left side of the brain responsible for speech. Now, the lawyer actually is more likely to sustain damage to the right side of the brain.

HARRIS: That's incredibly intriguing.

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