Doctors in Philadelphia operating to separate 7-week-old conjoined twins completed separation of the liver in a four-hour operation Friday and began transferring the shared heart.
The organs are being given to Angela Lakeberg in the slim hope that she can survive. Doctors said without the operation neither Angela nor her sister Amy would survive but would eventually die of heart failure.An 18-member surgical team began the delicate operation early Friday. The surgery was estimated to last up to 20 hours and was scheduled with the consent of twins' parents, Reitha and Ken Lakeberg of Wheat-field, Ind.
Doctors told the couple that, while it was extremely unlikely Angela would survive the operation, there was at least a "reasonable chance."
Dr. James O'Neill, the chief surgeon, said the surgery is complicated by the fact that the heart and vascular system the infants share must be reconstructed. He said the shared heart is actually two hearts that failed to develop as separate organs.
Unlike a normal heart, which has four chambers, the shared heart has six chambers, O'Neill said.
Before the operation, surgeons gave the parents a cast of the twins holding hands, with the names of each inscribed.
The twins were flown to Philadelphia after doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in suburban Chicago recommended against an operation to separate them.
Over the years, seven sets of conjoined twins who shared a heart have been separated at Children's Hospital. None of the children has survived.