SIAMESE TWINS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29021, 9 October 1959, Page 13

SIAMESE TWINS

Separation May Be Successful

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PORTLAND (Oregon), Oct. 7. Three-year-old Jeanett and Denett Stubblefield, born Siamese twins, were separated by surgeons yesterday and entered a crucial 48-hour recovery period. Four surgeons, assisted by more than a dozen other technicians, separated the babies in a fivehour operation at the University of Oregon Medical School Hospital. They had been under observation there since the day after they were born. A hospital spokesman said: “It is too early to predict the eventual outcome.” But he added that the babies stood the fivehour operation well. One of the surgeons who performed the operation said if all went well during the next two days the girls would be taken to their home in Parma, Idaho, in about three weeks.

The twins, described by one of the doctors as “beautiful little girls.” were extensively joined at the chest. After the separating operation, the surgeons divided into two teams with each working on a separate twin: The doctors said the babies now had complete sets of functioning organs and indicated they should survive, barring complications. A major danger, they said, was possible breathing difficulty caused by the tight abdominal closures.

The first successful separation of Siamese twins in medical history was made only seven years ago One of the twins in that operation died, but the other recently had his eighth birthday.