Conjoined Twin Girls Die in Texas (parents order repirator off -"Mommy, mommy I want to go home")

AP ^ | Fri, Jan 30, 2004

[presidio9]

SAN ANTONIO - A pair of seven-month-old conjoined twins were taken off respirators and died after their parents and doctors decided medical technology would be unable to separate the girls.

Parents Dawn and Matt Smith decided to have their daughters Brynleigh and Victoria taken off ventilators Thursday night after consulting with doctors, the San Antonio Express-News reported in Friday editions.

"It was not just one thing," Dawn Smith told the newspaper. "We had to look at the whole picture, at the whole package. They are incredibly sick. They can't get off the ventilators. I think they are just telling me, Mommy, mommy, I'm tired. I want to rest. I want to go home.'"

The girls were born July 25 and have remained at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base.

Connected from chest to belly, the girls were face to face, with their arms draped around each other. The girls shared a heart, liver, diaphragm and parts of their intestines.

Their continued dependence on ventilators led doctors to conclude that the girls would never leave the hospital.

"With no further options to increase support or relieve the underlying causes of their deterioration over the last three months, the medical staff and the parents agreed it was time to end the struggle and they were removed from life support," said Dr. William Lefkowitz, a Wilford Hall neonatologist.

After an autopsy, Brynleigh and Victoria's lungs, heart and liver will be donated to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a center for conjoined twins study. Doctors there will use the organs to teach future doctors about conjoined cases.

[Lurker]

How incredibly sad.

L

[RedWhiteBlue]

:(

[Atlantic Friend]

Gee, it's a terrible, awful thing. The poor little girls...

[smith288]

Mommy, mommy, I'm tired. I want to rest. I want to go home.

They seem to be religious as the word "go home" could mean Heaven. Depending on a persons outlook of going to Heaven, it can remove the burden that was on these parents in a spiritual sense. Letting their angels go to Heaven rather than try everything to prevent it for selfish human reasons.

Of course, I could be wrong though... Just something to think about.

[MEG33]

May God comfort the parents.

[steplock]

Before the flames on my last comment - My deep condolences to the parents --- GOD will forgive them

I can see their view but it is NOT our choice for the life and death of others.

[ArrogantBustard]

The LATEST term abortion now?

Declining extraordinary or heroic lifesaving treatment which has small chance of success is not the same as killing.

[Ditto]

Too sad to even comprehend.

[ArrogantBustard]

The LATEST term abortion now?

Declining extraordinary or heroic lifesaving treatment which has small chance of success is not the same as killing.

[altura]

I hope God will forgive you for your extreme lack of understanding and compassion.

No one was killed.

[EggsAckley]

GOD will forgive them

They do not need to be forgiven. If the babies could not live without life support, then it seems that God had a hand in THAT. You seem very mean and unforgiving yourself.

[John Beresford Tipton]

"I hope God will forgive you for your extreme lack of understanding and compassion."

God will surely forgive him,
for God knows he made him an idiot.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

I am strongly pro-life and a Christian. If indeed these precious babies could not live without being "kept alive", these parents have done nothing wrong by taking them off the ventilator.

[MainFrame65]

Connected from chest to belly, the girls were face to face, with their arms draped around each other. The girls shared a heart, liver, diaphragm and parts of their intestines. Their continued dependence on ventilators led doctors to conclude that the girls would never leave the hospital.

I'm not ready to go there. These shared organs might be able to sustain them at their current size, but their chances for surviving beyond a few weeks had to be near zero. They could not even breathe on their own, and in an earlier time they would already be gone. Sad, but not evil in my opinion.

[EggsAckley]

Spot on!

[AnAmericanMother]

This is very different from abortion. It is different from withholding nourishment and/or water.

These poor little girls were in terrible straits and would have died at birth but for heroic intervention. Disconnecting life support when their shared organs were already failing is not abortion. I can't fault the parents or the doctors for simply stopping a fight against the inevitable.

[cspackler]

If the babies could not live without life support, then it seems that God had a hand in THAT. You seem very mean and unforgiving yourself.

Thanks, you beat me to it.

[EggsAckley]

My pleasure.