Last week, two young conjoined twin girls in San Jose were separated for the first time. Dr. Gary Hartman performed this operation. It was a very tricky surgery, because the two girls were joined at both the chest and abdomen. These two girls were born with their livers, diaphragms, breast bones, chest and abdominal walls fused together. They had separate hearts, kidneys, brains, stomachs, and intestines. Dr. Hartman said the trickiest part of the operation was separating the liver, because it was tightly fused and they had to use tissue expanders to fill the holes. Dr. Hartman performed this risky operation very skillfully, which is no easy feat considering that these operations are only performed in the US about 6 times a year. These two young girls are very lucky to be alive and healthy; most conjoined twins die in the womb. However, their surgery went well and they are now both adjusting to living their lives as two separate children.
This article was very encouraging to me. I have heard many stories about the failed separating conjoined twins. I have also heard about twins who could not be separated, due to a situation where they are joined at a place that could not be separated, such as the brain. It is uplifting to hear that the doctors performing these surgeries are improving, and that the patients are able to live a normal life after the operation.
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