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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Conjoined Iranian Twins

Aired July 07, 2003 - 07:16   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Medical history is being made in Singapore. A marathon surgery is under way there to separate 29-year- old Iranian twins, who are conjoined at the head. The procedure is now in its second day.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at CNN Center to tell us more about this very complex operation.

Sanjay -- good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, and welcome, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

GUPTA: They are 29 years old, as you mentioned, they are lawyers, and they are now 56-and-a-half hours into an operation. They've been asleep for that long. Of course, we're talking about Ladan and Laleh Bijani, the Iranian twins that we've been hearing so much about.

They went to the operating room, like I said, over two days ago now. They were put to sleep at that time with general anesthesia. A vein was taken from one of the women's legs, and that vein has now been placed in the brain as part of the separation procedure. Soledad, that's what they've been talking about as being the critical step for so long. That part of the procedure, we're just hearing now, has been completed. So certainly a critical step already being done. It's still going to be some time, but over two days have already passed -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, they are the first adults, Sanjay, right, to be separated. So, was this medically necessary, or why would they undergo such a really risky procedure?

GUPTA: A really good question. And it's not medically necessary typically. This is considered an elective operation, which is surprising to most people, but it's likely that both Ladan and Lahel would have lived a normal life in terms of its life span had they not had the operation. They were having some problems with headaches, they were having some problems with neck pain, things like that, not surprising given their situation. However, in terms of life span, they probably would have lived a normal one.

They just did not want to be together anymore. One wants to be a journalist, and one wants to be a lawyer. They were clearly going in different directions -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: As you well know, these surgeries are generally performed on children. Are there any additional complications that face adults in this operation or that their surgeons sort of have to tackle because they're operating on adults?

GUPTA: Well, you know, the interesting thing is kids -- children are so much more resilient even to operations like this one. We certainly followed the situation with the Guatemalan twins recently, kids that tend to bounce back from this. Their brains -- the term that they use is "plasticity," and it really means the brain is almost like plastic, moldable, changeable, things like that. As we grow, as we grow into adults, that becomes less so, the brain not so easily adaptable, not quite so resilient to a change like this, and it's certainly going to be a little bit more traumatic.

Also, each set of conjoined twins are a little bit different, Soledad. With these two women, the situation really was this vein. They were sharing a major vein really the thickness of my finger here, and that vein had to be separated, and so that one woman could have one vein and one could have the other. That critical part, again, being over now -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, two days into the surgery, and, of course, we're going to continue to follow the story as the surgery continues -- excuse me -- Sanjay, and you'll have more for us a little bit later on this morning as well.

GUPTA: Absolutely. 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 July 7, 2003 - 07:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Medical history is being made in Singapore. A marathon surgery is under way there to separate 29-year- old Iranian twins, who are conjoined at the head. The procedure is now in its second day.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at CNN Center to tell us more about this very complex operation.

Sanjay -- good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, and welcome, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

GUPTA: They are 29 years old, as you mentioned, they are lawyers, and they are now 56-and-a-half hours into an operation. They've been asleep for that long. Of course, we're talking about Ladan and Laleh Bijani, the Iranian twins that we've been hearing so much about.

They went to the operating room, like I said, over two days ago now. They were put to sleep at that time with general anesthesia. A vein was taken from one of the women's legs, and that vein has now been placed in the brain as part of the separation procedure. Soledad, that's what they've been talking about as being the critical step for so long. That part of the procedure, we're just hearing now, has been completed. So certainly a critical step already being done. It's still going to be some time, but over two days have already passed -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, they are the first adults, Sanjay, right, to be separated. So, was this medically necessary, or why would they undergo such a really risky procedure?

GUPTA: A really good question. And it's not medically necessary typically. This is considered an elective operation, which is surprising to most people, but it's likely that both Ladan and Lahel would have lived a normal life in terms of its life span had they not had the operation. They were having some problems with headaches, they were having some problems with neck pain, things like that, not surprising given their situation. However, in terms of life span, they probably would have lived a normal one.

They just did not want to be together anymore. One wants to be a journalist, and one wants to be a lawyer. They were clearly going in different directions -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: As you well know, these surgeries are generally performed on children. Are there any additional complications that face adults in this operation or that their surgeons sort of have to tackle because they're operating on adults?

GUPTA: Well, you know, the interesting thing is kids -- children are so much more resilient even to operations like this one. We certainly followed the situation with the Guatemalan twins recently, kids that tend to bounce back from this. Their brains -- the term that they use is "plasticity," and it really means the brain is almost like plastic, moldable, changeable, things like that. As we grow, as we grow into adults, that becomes less so, the brain not so easily adaptable, not quite so resilient to a change like this, and it's certainly going to be a little bit more traumatic.

Also, each set of conjoined twins are a little bit different, Soledad. With these two women, the situation really was this vein. They were sharing a major vein really the thickness of my finger here, and that vein had to be separated, and so that one woman could have one vein and one could have the other. That critical part, again, being over now -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, two days into the surgery, and, of course, we're going to continue to follow the story as the surgery continues -- excuse me -- Sanjay, and you'll have more for us a little bit later on this morning as well.

GUPTA: Absolutely. 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.