TWINS IMPROVING

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30944, 28 December 1965, Page 2

TWINS IMPROVING

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LOS ANGELES, Dec. 27. Siamese twin girls clung to life today after surgery that separated them six hours after their birth on Christmas Day.

A surgeon who divided their common bladder and separated their intestines said their chances of survival were now a little better than the 50-50 chance given them earlier.

He said: “Everything is functioning and their colour is good.” Shiela Norine and Lisa Marie Mantonya were under intensive, constant care at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, receiving oxygen and intravenous feeding. Their mother, Mrs Robin Mantonya, aged 20, was reported “getting along very well” at a hospital 25 miles away in San Fernando. Mother Told

A doctor said he had told her they were “attached in a

small area and had to be separated.” Mrs Mantonya had been under sedation and unaware she had given birth to Siamese twins. The infants, weighing a total of 121 b, did not breathe for three or four minutes after birth. A doctor gave them mouth-to-mouth resus-

citation that probably saved their lives. At birth the twins were face to face, joined in the lower abdomen by a bridge of tissue about six inches in diameter. Within this were a common bladder and a thin, membranous sac containing intestines of both babies. Either before birth or during delivery this sac broke, leaving the intestines exposed. In a three-hour operation an intestinal outlet was provided on each baby’s abdomen as “a temporary, lifesaving measure.” Probably within a year, if the infants survive, they can be given normal outlets.