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American Morning

Interview With Neurosurgeons Who Separated Conjoined Twin Girls

Aired August 07, 2002 - 07:29   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A fascinating story here. For the first time they are now leading separate lives. But the two Guatemalan sisters joined at the head since birth still fighting for survival. The 1-year-old twins surgically separated during a 22 hour operation. The larger of the two, Maria Teresa, had to be operated on a second time for bleeding on the brain. This morning the girls are side by side, still in intensive care.

And for the latest on their recovery and prognosis today, Dr. Jorge Lazareff and Dr. Henry Kawamoto. He's there in L.A. with a whole crew behind you, too.

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks for getting up for us today.

DR. HENRY KAWAMOTO, JR., CRANIOFACIAL SURGEON: Good morning, sir.

DR. JORGE LAZAREFF, NEUROSURGEON: Good morning, Bill. Good morning.

HEMMER: Dr. Lazareff, I guess the first thing we need to know is Maria Teresa. How is she doing after the five hours of additional surgery yesterday?

LAZAREFF: We just saw them, all the team, ourselves and the team here. We went to see them. And considering that she has had two major surgical procedures in the last 24 hours, she's doing extremely well. She's doing extremely well and we are very positive with the way that she is responding.

HEMMER: You know, doctor, yesterday you were quoted as saying, when you came out and met reporters you said absolutely positive, I am, if you go and visit them in five years, they will be leading a normal life. After such a delicate operation, why so confident so early?

LAZAREFF: Because everything went basically according as to what we planned. They received the best of each of one of us in one of the best institutions of the country. And forgive me for being so upbeat about UCLA. And on top of that, they actually are children and babies and children do have an immense potential for recovery. So I continue to be absolutely optimistic as I was yesterday.

HEMMER: How real is the possibility at this point of brain damage? And also, another doctor had said it's going to take at least a week before they're outside this range of truly life threatening situation here. I'm curious to get your reaction on both of those.

LAZAREFF: Yes, I think that the possibility of some form of brain damage that may impair or delay their cognitive development is a possibility. It is possible that they will not reach the milestones of their second year of life as rapidly as any other child would. But I -- that's why I, as I said yesterday, five years, I mean I am absolutely sure that by the time that the five years have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I mean four more years, they would have already reached those milestones.

So even though they may have brain damage, the plasticity of their brain will allow them to recover most of the functions that they may have lost during this surgical procedure.

HEMMER: Let me bring the doctor next to you into this discussion.

Dr. Kawamoto, your specialty is plastic surgery.

KAWAMOTO: Yes.

HEMMER: Based on what you saw yesterday, what is your perception right now about how these two girls will heal?

KAWAMOTO: Well, when they left the operating room we felt pretty good about what went on. I think if all goes to plan, they will heal everything well. At least that's what we're hoping for. And we'll probably know quite a bit about that phase when we change the dressing.

HEMMER: And when will that take place, doctor?

KAWAMOTO: Probably tomorrow or today we'll be changing the dressing to see how things are going. But we're, as I always said, cautiously optimistic. I'm a little bit more pessimistic or cautious than Jorge. But it's a little of that ying-yang. You know, we balance each other out.

HEMMER: I guess you need a little bit of that.

Who are the folks behind you, Dr. Kawamoto? I don't know if we can pull the camera out a little wider or not?

KAWAMOTO: Well, this is the entire -- well, not the entire surgical team, but people from anesthesia and plastic surgery and neurosurgery. And I must say one of the best things about this operation was the great teamwork we had. And you cannot believe in the operating room, it was very calm, very orderly. We were telling jokes and actually probably the only argument was what album were we going to be playing at that time at what volume.

HEMMER: What was the answer on that one?

LAZAREFF: There wasn't any answer, I mean, because there wasn't any agreement.

HEMMER: You're still debating over that one.

LAZAREFF: We just couldn't agree on that.

HEMMER: Let's...

LAZAREFF: No, we couldn't agree.

HEMMER: I am absolutely out of time, but in 15 seconds, can you describe for us the feeling that was inside that room once the separation occurred?

KAWAMOTO: Surprisingly very calm. I mean there wasn't any yelling and screaming or anything like that. We saw the separation and well, that happened, that's step so and so, let's go to the next step. It was not any great, great display of emotion. It was well, it's done, let's go to the next step.

HEMMER: Boy, you guys must be tired. Hang in there, OK, and my best to the both of you and the selected members of your staff standing behind you.

Dr. Jorge Lazareff on the right and Dr. Henry Kawamoto on the left.

Thank you, men. We'll talk again as things progress again in California.

LAZAREFF: Thank you, sir.

KAWAMOTO: Thank you.

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