Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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In an 11-hour marathon operation, surgeons at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last week successfully separated 10-month-old twin girls who were joined at the tops of their heads, the least common type of conjoined twins, the hospital disclosed Tuesday.
The separation and reconstructive surgeries of Erin and Abby Delaney of North Carolina followed months of imaging studies and planning by a large team from Children’s. The hospital says it had separated 22 other sets of conjoined twins over the past 60 years, but never siblings joined at the head.
The procedure, known as craniopagus surgery, has been conducted only about 60 times since 1952. Last year, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York successfully performed the head surgery to separate twin boys at 13 months of age.
Twin girls joined at heads separated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
And the momma kept a blog where she discusses the surgery and after:
At that moment I stood in the middle of the room in-between two beds and realized what had happened. We had two girls. Two separate girls independent of each other. They were on their own. They were fighting on their own. They each looked almost lonely in their beds without the other. It almost felt wrong in a way that they couldn't be with each other. I realized that I was now going to have to split myself between two children. Before I could stand in one spot and read them both a story. I could change Erin's diaper while chatting with Abby. I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I couldn't kiss them at the same time, and it blew my mind.
That night was a lot of ups and downs. Abby needed to get another PICC line placed to have more access for meds. I had paper work signed and they were doing that within what felt like minutes of her getting brought up. The doctors where nervous and I knew they didn't know if she would make it through the night.
But the morning came and Abby was still here. Both her and Erin stabilized enough during the night. They were both fighting harder than I have ever seen a child fight. They were under so much medication and paralytics that they just laid still. I could hold their hand but it wouldn't squeeze me back. I couldn't hear their voices, I couldn't see their eyes. It was very hard.
Home
I was teary eyed after that.
The separation and reconstructive surgeries of Erin and Abby Delaney of North Carolina followed months of imaging studies and planning by a large team from Children’s. The hospital says it had separated 22 other sets of conjoined twins over the past 60 years, but never siblings joined at the head.
The procedure, known as craniopagus surgery, has been conducted only about 60 times since 1952. Last year, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York successfully performed the head surgery to separate twin boys at 13 months of age.
Twin girls joined at heads separated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
And the momma kept a blog where she discusses the surgery and after:
At that moment I stood in the middle of the room in-between two beds and realized what had happened. We had two girls. Two separate girls independent of each other. They were on their own. They were fighting on their own. They each looked almost lonely in their beds without the other. It almost felt wrong in a way that they couldn't be with each other. I realized that I was now going to have to split myself between two children. Before I could stand in one spot and read them both a story. I could change Erin's diaper while chatting with Abby. I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I couldn't kiss them at the same time, and it blew my mind.
That night was a lot of ups and downs. Abby needed to get another PICC line placed to have more access for meds. I had paper work signed and they were doing that within what felt like minutes of her getting brought up. The doctors where nervous and I knew they didn't know if she would make it through the night.
But the morning came and Abby was still here. Both her and Erin stabilized enough during the night. They were both fighting harder than I have ever seen a child fight. They were under so much medication and paralytics that they just laid still. I could hold their hand but it wouldn't squeeze me back. I couldn't hear their voices, I couldn't see their eyes. It was very hard.
Home
I was teary eyed after that.
