Separated twins

[Phil]

How do you feel about this?

There are twin girls I think they're 3 years old. They were joined in the abdominal area. The 1 will need serious skin grafting to close that area. She does have the functioning kidney though.

The other will close more easily but her mother will have to provide a kidney. Such transplants have been known to work in the past so that will probably be all right.

This family also consists of a daughter and a set of 14month old boy twins. 2 sets of twins in 1 family.

I realize that there are times the organs can't sustain life for 2 people once they reach a size and age to need more space. Othertimes there is no chance of seperation because the shared organs are the only means of survival.

Should everything work out well, both of the twins will have a better chance for a normal life because they won't be joined as conjoined twins.

There are serious risks to the lives of conjoined twins either way.

As a father myself, and 1 of my children is actually the same age, I know that would be a highly difficult decision.

What does everybody else think?

[Blastgirl]

I could never make a desision like that unless their lives were in danger. (I think they are always at risk nomatter what you do though) There's things that are solved by separation and yet the separation introduces new issues.

Assuming both of them come out of this, they will both be better off in the larger picture.

They will only receive one leg each though. As long as they can sustain themselves it's better this way. They must have their own brains and own hearts or this wouldn't even be a consideration.

I think it's interesting that this Family has two sets of twins too.

[Phil]

I agree it's a heck of a decision to have to make. I could see waiting until the kids are old enough to decide but there's danger in that too the 2 bodies could become too dependent on eachother by that point.

[Hatson]

I read about that too. And there are always dangers.

But the article I was reading said that separation is usually done at slightly older ages if it gets done at all. The fact that those girls were as healthy as they are makes it easier to get started now when they have young bodies that can heal sooner. And not be at as serious of a health risk.