SIAMESE TWINS NO MORE

Evening Star, Issue 15481, 1 May 1914, Page 5

SIAMESE TWINS NO MORE

FIGHTING SISTEBS SEPARATED BY OPERATION.

Many distinguished medical and scientific jb»r were present at a Paris nucsiuj home when Suzanne and Madeleine, the new Siamese t'vins, were separated by surgical operation, which wa3 performed by Dr Le Filli=iire. The two little girls were joined by the l.i.r'y, face to face, and when they were a few weeks old they fought so vigorously that their hands had to be swathed in cotton woo! to prevent them from scratching one another. 'Alien Srst born they were weak, but during rhtr last few wesks they gained so rapidly in weight that M. Le Filliatre decided to hasten the operation. It appears to have been quite successful. Suzanne and Madeleine are no longer one, but two, for the bridge of fibro-cartilaginous tissue which united them has been severed. The danger the surgeon had to reckon with was that some important organs should have been common to both babies. Radiography had not given any definite indications on this subject. The result <.f the operation appears to prove that Suzanne and Madeleine had each her compile complement of vital organs. Dr Le Filiiatre had three assistants—Dr Bisacher, Dr Delaunay, and the tatter's wife, who is % fully-qiiaUfied physician. A local anaesthetic (cocaine) was used in microscopio quantities—four and a-half milligrammes in a jCO to 500 solution. A special set of tiny instruments had been made for the operation —a doir» tet—as the ordinary instruments would have been too clumsy for this " surgie»l jewellery work." to use the suTgeon's phrase. The operation lasted a quarter of ■m hour, and the twins, though they cried » little, ffid not appear to suffer greatly. They ate now doing as well as can be ex*flo«*d. They are restricted to a milk diet, tut a* Qmj are barely three months old nq ittitM pvecnoatics are to be drawn from the hot, Dr Doyen, the famous French surgeon, p«tformed practically the same operation wo« 10 years ago on the Siamese twins, Ra4W and Doodica, with entire success. Tbe health of Susanna, the survivor of the Fr«nch Siamese twins, has steadily improved since the operation by Dr Le lfua»tre far separating them. Since then vbe h*s gained almost a couple of pounds in wdfht, and it is reported that she is now fci better health than she has ever bean iuang hear young life. There is little jjSjbt that MfidcJaine, always the -weaker if the pair, was literally living on her Carter's •fcranjsih; hence her collapse when redacad by the separation to her own resource*.