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Separation Surgery

Aired October 13, 2003 - 13:59   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They were born joined at the head, and now after a marathon operation at a Dallas hospital, 2-year-old twin boys from Egypt have been given a chance at separate lives, but the next weeks and months are critical.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been monitoring their progress, listening closely to the news conference we just heard here a little while ago.

Dr. Gupta, what is the latest.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest is they appear to be recovering well. The only piece of information that is sort of new since the operation is some CAT scans that the doctors actually performed.

Dr. James Thomas just had a press conference a little bit ago. This is what he had to say about that:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JAMES THOMAS, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: The boys underwent routine follow-up CAT scans of their brains. Both Ahmed's and Mohammed's brain scans look good. There is no hemorrhage, and minimal residual brain swelling. The neurosurgery team is quite pleased with what they see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And what they're talking about specifically there, Miles, they're looking for significant bleeding that may have occurred in and around the brain that happened at the time of the operation. They don't see that yet. This is still the first layer of concern. The layers of concern are going to diminish over time, but significantly, they're still a lot, still talking about whether living or the layer concerns. They're still talking about whether living or dying is possibly going to happen to either one of the twins. That could take some time -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk briefly about what you were referring to last hour about the left side of one of the twin's brains, in particularly, is of concern. Why is that?

GUPTA: Well, it's interesting, Miles. Actually, if you look at the twin's brains -- actually we have a model here to help demonstrate that -- the left side of the brain of one of the twins was sort of closely stuck together was the word that the neurosurgeons used to the right side of the twin's other twin's brain. Now this is significant, because the left side typically more responsible for speech, for the ability to receive and give speech, and writing and all that sort of stuff, whereas the right side of the brain in that same location sort of more responsible for spatial relations. So one of the twins is going to have more of a significant impact to what might be what we call an eloquent area of the brain. It is hard to say, Miles, whether that will be a significant impact long term. Young people, young twins, 2-year-old twins in this case, can rewire their brain, if you will, to a certain extent with the time, but that's a long ways away, still.

O'BRIEN: So, potentially, if they get through the woods here, they face different challenges as time goes on. It's kind of interesting how you giveth and taketh away in an operation like this.

Let's talk about a surgery which we may recall a few years ago now, the two Marias.

GUPTA: That's right.

O'BRIEN: How are they doing? And is that in any way something we can relate to this surgery?

GUPTA: I think it's a good example actually, the two Marias, both young children as well, in contrast to the adult twins, which we've also been talking about. But the two Marias sort of obviously came through the operation well and are both still living. They've had some significant problems though, mainly in term of infection. You've already heard that term already being thrown around as a concern for these two boys from Egypt as well. Infection around the brain, in and around the brain, can be very significant. It is called meningitis. It is called encephalitis, which means an inflammation of the brain itself. Those can be significant problems. And one of the Marias has had significant problems with that. That is the sort of challenge that occurs with this. You've just performed a significant brain operation. There are certain areas of the brain that may be a bit uncovered, or open to a certain extent, or more prone to infection. They're obviously doing everything they can to minimize that sort of thing, but those are the sorts of concerns, these of concerns that will develop over the next several days and weeks.

O'BRIEN: So even now the Marias aren't out of the woods?

GUPTA: Yes, that's right. I mean, again, if you talk about the decision trees, as to whether you're worried about them living or dying, I think they're likely to survive now, all the post-operative concerns from that operation. But I think the question that a lot of people ask, and it's a fair one, is how are they going to be in terms of the quality of life? I think you're absolutely right on that point, Miles, they're not out of the wood there's yet. They have an advantage in being young. They have an advantage in terms of their resilience and have an advantage in terms of their brain actually being able to sustain such an operation. But still, it's a long road.

O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much for watching this for us. 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 October 13, 2003 - 13:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They were born joined at the head, and now after a marathon operation at a Dallas hospital, 2-year-old twin boys from Egypt have been given a chance at separate lives, but the next weeks and months are critical.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been monitoring their progress, listening closely to the news conference we just heard here a little while ago.

Dr. Gupta, what is the latest.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest is they appear to be recovering well. The only piece of information that is sort of new since the operation is some CAT scans that the doctors actually performed.

Dr. James Thomas just had a press conference a little bit ago. This is what he had to say about that:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JAMES THOMAS, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: The boys underwent routine follow-up CAT scans of their brains. Both Ahmed's and Mohammed's brain scans look good. There is no hemorrhage, and minimal residual brain swelling. The neurosurgery team is quite pleased with what they see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And what they're talking about specifically there, Miles, they're looking for significant bleeding that may have occurred in and around the brain that happened at the time of the operation. They don't see that yet. This is still the first layer of concern. The layers of concern are going to diminish over time, but significantly, they're still a lot, still talking about whether living or the layer concerns. They're still talking about whether living or dying is possibly going to happen to either one of the twins. That could take some time -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk briefly about what you were referring to last hour about the left side of one of the twin's brains, in particularly, is of concern. Why is that?

GUPTA: Well, it's interesting, Miles. Actually, if you look at the twin's brains -- actually we have a model here to help demonstrate that -- the left side of the brain of one of the twins was sort of closely stuck together was the word that the neurosurgeons used to the right side of the twin's other twin's brain. Now this is significant, because the left side typically more responsible for speech, for the ability to receive and give speech, and writing and all that sort of stuff, whereas the right side of the brain in that same location sort of more responsible for spatial relations. So one of the twins is going to have more of a significant impact to what might be what we call an eloquent area of the brain. It is hard to say, Miles, whether that will be a significant impact long term. Young people, young twins, 2-year-old twins in this case, can rewire their brain, if you will, to a certain extent with the time, but that's a long ways away, still.

O'BRIEN: So, potentially, if they get through the woods here, they face different challenges as time goes on. It's kind of interesting how you giveth and taketh away in an operation like this.

Let's talk about a surgery which we may recall a few years ago now, the two Marias.

GUPTA: That's right.

O'BRIEN: How are they doing? And is that in any way something we can relate to this surgery?

GUPTA: I think it's a good example actually, the two Marias, both young children as well, in contrast to the adult twins, which we've also been talking about. But the two Marias sort of obviously came through the operation well and are both still living. They've had some significant problems though, mainly in term of infection. You've already heard that term already being thrown around as a concern for these two boys from Egypt as well. Infection around the brain, in and around the brain, can be very significant. It is called meningitis. It is called encephalitis, which means an inflammation of the brain itself. Those can be significant problems. And one of the Marias has had significant problems with that. That is the sort of challenge that occurs with this. You've just performed a significant brain operation. There are certain areas of the brain that may be a bit uncovered, or open to a certain extent, or more prone to infection. They're obviously doing everything they can to minimize that sort of thing, but those are the sorts of concerns, these of concerns that will develop over the next several days and weeks.

O'BRIEN: So even now the Marias aren't out of the woods?

GUPTA: Yes, that's right. I mean, again, if you talk about the decision trees, as to whether you're worried about them living or dying, I think they're likely to survive now, all the post-operative concerns from that operation. But I think the question that a lot of people ask, and it's a fair one, is how are they going to be in terms of the quality of life? I think you're absolutely right on that point, Miles, they're not out of the wood there's yet. They have an advantage in being young. They have an advantage in terms of their resilience and have an advantage in terms of their brain actually being able to sustain such an operation. But still, it's a long road.

O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much for watching this for us. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com