Aug. 09, 2006 - 19:58 MDT

MIRACLES OF MEDICINE

In as brief a time as my lifetime, medical science has made superb progress. An article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News by Jennifer Dobner of the Associated Press bears good witness to that, quoted in full here:

SO FAR, SO GOOD AS TWINS, 4, BEGIN SEPARATE LIVES

SALT LAKE CITY -- "Swathed in gauze, twin sisters Kendra and Maliyah Herrin were rolled from the operating room Tuesday and moved to separate beds for the first time. In 26 hours of surgery, doctors separated the conjoined, 4-year olds and reconstructed their internal organs."

"When I was done with the operation and we were getting ready to take (Kendra) to the ICU, I got tears in my eyes, because they looked so good," pediatric surgeon Dr. Michael Matlak said."

"The girls had been born in a perpetual hug, their little bodies fused at the midsection so that they were practically face-to-face."

"They shared a liver, a kidney, a pelvis, one set of legs and part of their intestines."

"Surgeons at Primary Children's Medical center gave each girl one leg, split their liver and intestines and reconstructed their bladders and their pelvic rings."

"Kendra kept their one functioning kidney. Maliyah will be put on dialysis and receive one of her mother's kidneys in a transplant operation in three to six months."

"Parents Jake and Erin Herrin, who also have a 6-year-old daughter and twin 14-month-old boys, had an emotional reunion with their daughters."

"There were happy tears and sad tears," hospital spokeswoman Bonnie Midget siad."

"The operation was believed to be the first time surgeons separated conjoined twins with a shared kidney, said Dr. Rebecka Meyers, chief pediatric surgeon at Primary Children's Medical Center."

"Matlak was the first to cradle Kendra after separation, lifting her gently from the operating table to move her to another room for reconstructive surgery. "It was a grat moment, " Matlak said. "In one sense, she was mine."

"Matlak said he feared the gaping separation wound on the girls bodies would be difficult to close. but tissue expanders placed in the twins weeks ago to grow their skin and muscles, combined with plastic surgery, made the job easier than expected, he said."

"But the days ahead will be tough. The girls are breathing with the assistance of ventilators, their bodies swollen from the hours of surgery and at risk for dangerous infections, Meyers said."

"The twins are expected to remain in intensive care for about a week, and recover in the hospital for at least a month before doctors can consider sending them home."

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A miracle it is of modern medical science, but of course those two dear girls will have years of adjustments to make, coping with problems physical. Maliyah will have to cope with the discomfort of dialysis and consequent problems, as well as the later transplant surgery and recovery from that.

Hopefully they will not suffer infections or setbacks while recovering.

It is hard for me to imagine being conjoined with a twin, sharing a good part of a body with another. As they said, "born in a perpetual hug" implies that at times they were much to close to each other for comfort.

In the old days about their only means of survival would have been as circus freaks open to the misuse and abuse of those more able to get around.

If they make a full recovery, about the only disadvantage they each will have is learning to live with only one leg. I don't know if there will be protheses to fit each of them with that missing limb.

But considering the alternative, a lifetime of being shackled to another body and needing each time an action is considered it will have to be with the agreement with the other half with a brain of its own, I think, if successful this is a modern MIRACLE OF MEDICINE . . . . . . . . .

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