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CNN Live Saturday
Dominican Girl Dies After Head Surgery
Aired February 07, 2004 - 14:02 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On now to another health story -- this one involving a risky and rare surgery of a little girl from the Dominican Republic. The infant, born with two heads, has died after the surgery. The baby's mother says she was just too young to endure the surgery.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us on the telephone with more on this. And Sanjay, had the child had a better chance of survival had they waited perhaps months or even years?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that probably wasn't a very good option for this child with the condition known as cranial pagusparasiticus (ph), or parasite twin, is the condition the child had.
What happens is that as the second head starts to grow, it puts pressure on the primary brain of Rebecca, the 7-week-old. And therefore you really can't wait too long. So waiting wasn't an option. The operation had to be done.
You're asking the right question. When you're operating on a young -- very young child, though, one of the big risks is that you start to lose a significant amount of blood, things can get out of control pretty quickly. Little babies just don't have that much blood, and all of a sudden you can get into a tenuous situation, as appeared happened with this little girl.
WHITFIELD: And was it ever an issue of whether this hospital in the Dominican Republic was equipped with the kind of medical technology to do such a delicate type of surgery?
GUPTA: That's a great question as well, Fredricka.
Dr. Jorge (UNINTELLIGIBLE), someone I know well, pediatric neurosurgeon from UCLA, was one of the primary surgeons for this (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Remember, he did the Guatemalan twins recently, the two Marias in Los Angeles, and successfully. Great surgeon.
Resources -- I've seen this particular hospital in Santo Doming. Again, one of the -- one of the primary concerns of any operation like this is blood and access to blood in the case of bleeding. I know in Rebecca's case -- Rebecca is the name of the 7-week-old little girl -- they had about four gallons of blood standing by, 16 liters or so. Enough to transfuse her entire blood volume several times over if needed. SO, resource-wise it sounded like they were well equipped.
But having performed brain operations -- certainly not like this, but performed brain operations -- if the brain starts to bleed it can -- it can be very -- you can get a lot of blood loss quickly.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
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 February 7, 2004 - 14:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On now to another health story -- this one involving a risky and rare surgery of a little girl from the Dominican Republic. The infant, born with two heads, has died after the surgery. The baby's mother says she was just too young to endure the surgery.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us on the telephone with more on this. And Sanjay, had the child had a better chance of survival had they waited perhaps months or even years?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that probably wasn't a very good option for this child with the condition known as cranial pagusparasiticus (ph), or parasite twin, is the condition the child had.
What happens is that as the second head starts to grow, it puts pressure on the primary brain of Rebecca, the 7-week-old. And therefore you really can't wait too long. So waiting wasn't an option. The operation had to be done.
You're asking the right question. When you're operating on a young -- very young child, though, one of the big risks is that you start to lose a significant amount of blood, things can get out of control pretty quickly. Little babies just don't have that much blood, and all of a sudden you can get into a tenuous situation, as appeared happened with this little girl.
WHITFIELD: And was it ever an issue of whether this hospital in the Dominican Republic was equipped with the kind of medical technology to do such a delicate type of surgery?
GUPTA: That's a great question as well, Fredricka.
Dr. Jorge (UNINTELLIGIBLE), someone I know well, pediatric neurosurgeon from UCLA, was one of the primary surgeons for this (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Remember, he did the Guatemalan twins recently, the two Marias in Los Angeles, and successfully. Great surgeon.
Resources -- I've seen this particular hospital in Santo Doming. Again, one of the -- one of the primary concerns of any operation like this is blood and access to blood in the case of bleeding. I know in Rebecca's case -- Rebecca is the name of the 7-week-old little girl -- they had about four gallons of blood standing by, 16 liters or so. Enough to transfuse her entire blood volume several times over if needed. SO, resource-wise it sounded like they were well equipped.
But having performed brain operations -- certainly not like this, but performed brain operations -- if the brain starts to bleed it can -- it can be very -- you can get a lot of blood loss quickly.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
