Operation begins on conjoined adult twins

CNN ^ | Sunday, July 6, 2003 Posted: 12:13 PM EDT (1613 GMT)

[yonif]

Ladan and Laleh Bijani, 29, were wheeled into an operating room at Raffles Hospital at 10 a.m. (10 p.m. Saturday ET) after undergoing MRI and CT scans.

Once the women were anesthetized, doctors removed two sections of veins from Ladan's right thigh for use in a bypass procedure. The surgery began shortly after noon and ended at 4 p.m., the hospital said.

[yonif]

[EggsAckley]

My prayers go out to them, and to the 1 y.o. Guatemalan twins undergoing the same surgery.

I sure hope not to see a lot of joking on this thread.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Wow, hope it works out for them.

[LibWhacker]

I'm with you. How this cannot choke a person up, I don't know. Imagine going into that operation knowing there was a 50/50 chance you won't survive and approximately a 75% chance at least one of you will die.

[Threepwood]

I heard it might take four days to get the operation done. They share one huge blood vessel in their brains (which are, thankfully seperate entities) and it's going to be VERY touchy to seperate. I'm going to pray for the surgeons involved, this is going to be a real challenge.

Incidentally, I wonder if this is a big story in Iran? The Iranian people are not as anti-american as some might assume, this could be a real booster for the US image there.

[LibWhacker]

The operation is being done in Singapore, I think. They are in the midst of the most critical part of the surgery as we speak.

Four days! May God protect them and guide the doctors with his infinitely merciful hands.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

These brave women are in my continued prayers. I am following the limited reports I hear on the radio, and I hope the outcome is one of miracles.

[Threepwood]

Hmm. I heard, "complex, ground-breaking surgery" and I immediately thought it would be done in the states. Is my bias showing? Too bad.:)

[Lady Jag]

If anyone knows of a source for updates on the surgery, please post it here. Praying for success.

[Lady Jag]

The shared vein is the biggest obstacle in the surgery: Other than sharing the vein, the women's brains are not joined though they touch inside their skulls. Their bodies are otherwise distinct.

German doctors told the twins in 1996 that the shared vein, which drains blood from their brains, made surgery too dangerous.

Doctors on Sunday removed a vein from Ladan Bijani's thigh and will use that to compensate for diverting the shared vein to one sister's brain. Doctors have not yet determined which sister will keep the finger-thick vein and which will receive the graft, Kumar said.

Surgeons worked simultaneously in front of and behind the twins, who are sitting in a custom-built brace connected to an array of lines feeding them intravenously and monitoring their vital signs.

"Everything is going according to schedule," plastic surgeon Dr. Walter Tan said after making the incisions into the twins' skulls.

The twins spent months training at a gym to build up strength for the surgery and Kumar said they could be kept asleep for four days if necessary.

Excerpted from ABC News.

[LibWhacker]

Don't worry about it, Threep, lol . . . I just heard on the news that many of the 28 surgeons involved in this operation are -- you guessed it -- volunteers FROM THE U.S.!!! So you'd think that that ought to garner at least some good will toward us in Iran. I hope so. And vice versa. God knows many of us are pulling for those two unfortunate souls.

[paltz]

I have to wonder, while I hope for the succeess of the operation, after 29 years of knowing nothing but beingattached to someone else, I would imagine it would become quite a "shock' to be living life separated. There will be abguish to follow regardless.

[LibWhacker]

Don't know of a site dedicated to the surgery per se, but one way to follow it is to keep an eye on this Google news search page (keyword 'conjoined').

[Scenic Sounds]

This is a fascinating story. Apparently, the two have different career goals. As I recall, one of them wants to practice law and the other one wants to be a journalist.

Best wishes to both for a successful outcome.

[Snowyman]

A Message from the twins,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3048706.stm

[Lady Jag]

I had used "Bijani", but yours yields much better results.

[LibWhacker]

I'm kinda partial to yours, lol!

[Lady Jag]

I'm kinda partial to yours, lol!

Intended or not, that was a pun and a half.

Google 'Bijani' and/or 'conjoined' for news, the part of the surgery experts considered the most critical, dealing with that shared vein, has been completed.

These women deserve our prayers for successful separation.

[StatesEnemy]

RIP.

They took a chance at separate lives, and lost.

Very sad.