Sgt Sostand
07-08-03, 06:56 AM
SINGAPORE, July 8 — Neurosurgeons separated 29-year-old Iranian twins joined at the head Tuesday after two days of delicate surgery, but both sisters died shortly after their parting.
THE HOSPITAL announced Ladan Bijani’s death, then, a few hours later, a nurse involved in the surgery said her sister Lelah had died.
“Everyone upstairs is crying,” said the nurse, who was directly involved in the operation. She was speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The second one has died,” she said. “We treated them like family because they had been here for seven months.”
Hospital officials had yet to officially announced the second death. Earlier, they announced the death of Ladan Bijani, saying she had lost a lot of blood as the two-day surgery was coming to a close.
Surgeons began a marathon operation to separate the twins on Sunday afternoon — warning that the operation could kill one or both.
It was the first time surgeons had attempted to separate adult craniopagus twins — siblings born joined at the head — since the operation was first performed on infants in 1952.
UNSTABLE PRESSURE LEVELS
“As the separation was coming to a close, a lot of blood was lost. The twins were subsequently in a critical state,” said hospital spokesman Dr. Prem Kumar.
The team of doctors had to contend with unstable pressure levels inside the twins’ brains just before they worked to uncouple the sisters’ brains and cut through the last bit of skull joining them, Kumar said.
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On Monday, the team of doctors completed one of the most dangerous steps in the surgery by rerouting a shared vein and stitched in a new one. The shared vein, thick as a finger, drained blood from the twins’ brains to their hearts.
The sisters’ brains had “to be teased apart very slowly,” Kumar said. “Cut. Teased apart. Cut. Teased apart. In the process, you encounter a lot of blood vessels and other tissues.”
He said surgeon worked “millimeter by millimeter.”
The operation was complicated further when the team discovered that the pressure in the twins’ brains and circulatory system was fluctuating.
THE HOSPITAL announced Ladan Bijani’s death, then, a few hours later, a nurse involved in the surgery said her sister Lelah had died.
“Everyone upstairs is crying,” said the nurse, who was directly involved in the operation. She was speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The second one has died,” she said. “We treated them like family because they had been here for seven months.”
Hospital officials had yet to officially announced the second death. Earlier, they announced the death of Ladan Bijani, saying she had lost a lot of blood as the two-day surgery was coming to a close.
Surgeons began a marathon operation to separate the twins on Sunday afternoon — warning that the operation could kill one or both.
It was the first time surgeons had attempted to separate adult craniopagus twins — siblings born joined at the head — since the operation was first performed on infants in 1952.
UNSTABLE PRESSURE LEVELS
“As the separation was coming to a close, a lot of blood was lost. The twins were subsequently in a critical state,” said hospital spokesman Dr. Prem Kumar.
The team of doctors had to contend with unstable pressure levels inside the twins’ brains just before they worked to uncouple the sisters’ brains and cut through the last bit of skull joining them, Kumar said.
Advertisement[AD-IMG]
On Monday, the team of doctors completed one of the most dangerous steps in the surgery by rerouting a shared vein and stitched in a new one. The shared vein, thick as a finger, drained blood from the twins’ brains to their hearts.
The sisters’ brains had “to be teased apart very slowly,” Kumar said. “Cut. Teased apart. Cut. Teased apart. In the process, you encounter a lot of blood vessels and other tissues.”
He said surgeon worked “millimeter by millimeter.”
The operation was complicated further when the team discovered that the pressure in the twins’ brains and circulatory system was fluctuating.