Sue Hartigan [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Hi Jackie:
While looking for something else I found this. I thought it very
interesting and may give you some answers to your questions, I hope.
Sue
Conjoined Twins Face Life and Death
March 11, 1998
DIANE SAWYER
There was a rare event here in California about a
month ago, a set of conjoined twins was born. Gabrielle
(ph) and Michaela Garcia (ph) share their entire lower
body. They have only two legs. Separating them, while
technically possible, is very risky, but it is a decision
that their parents and doctors must now face --
separate them or let them live on as they are.
Tonight Dr Nancy Snyderman explores this medical
and emotional question with some extraordinary
families. It is a story of lives that are intertwined in
ways
most of us will never understand.
DR NANCY SNYDERMAN, ABC NEWS (VO) It
is May 1, 1996. Michelle Roderick is about to have her
first babies, twins Janelle (ph) and Shawna (ph). Shes
excited and nervous. Babies may be born every day,
but Janelle and Shawna are differentidentical twins
who never separated from each other completely. An
accident of nature on or about the 14th day of their lives
in the womb has joined them together from the bottom
of the chest through the abdomen, sharing diaphragm
and liver.
Michelle and her husband, Jeff, first learned that the
twins would be joined during a routine ultrasound.
Since that time, they have consulted with doctors,
agonized and prayed. But at this moment, they are just
proud parents.
Conjoined twins are extremely rare, about 1 in
100,000 pregnancies, and only about 1 in 10 of those
survive past birth. Janelle and Shawna are lucky. They
are healthy and separable.
But sometimes separation means choosing one life
over another. In 1993, Angela (ph) and Amy Lakeburg
(ph) were born sharing a single deformed,
sixchambered heart. That heart could never be
divided in a way that would pump enough blood for
both girls. Only one could live. Dr James ONeil (ph),
now at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, led the
surgical team in a controversial operation at Childrens
Hospital of Philadelphia.
DR JAMES ONEIL, SURGEON The hearts were
abnormal, but the one side was fixable by conventional
techniquesdifficult, but conventional. And the other
side, there was no way to fix it. One had to be selected
and the other couldnt survive. But that was ordained by
that anatomy.
DR NANCY SNYDERMAN (VO) On the day of their
surgery, Angelas fingernails were painted pink to
signal that she would live. Amys were not. When the
moment came to take Amy off life support, it was
sobering.
DR JAMES ONEIL The feeling when it is under
way and when it is over, I think you can understand, is
one of internal quiet and reflection and respect for the
event and for the individual who didnt survive.
DR NANCY SNYDERMAN (VO) The bold
experiment ultimately failed. Just before her 1st
birthday, Angela died, too. She never even left the
hospital. (on camera) Parents and doctors must
sometimes take calculated risks, but are we on a
slippery slope when we intentionally sacrifice the life of
one twin in order to save another?
DR ALICE DRAGER (PH), MEDICAL ETHICIST I
just simply dont know of any other situation in medicine
in which anyone is intentionally asphyxiated. Thats only
done in the case of conjoined twins.
DR NANCY SNYDERMAN (VO) Dr Alice Drager, a
medical ethicist at Michigan State University, calls it
asphyxiation when heroic surgery is tried to save one
twin at the others expense, and she thinks it is a moral
outrage.
DR ALICE DRAGER What bothers me is that,
essentially, the approach being taken is called a
