Conjoined 2-Year-Olds Set for Surgery

I am sending positive thoughts to them and I hope the surgery is successful.

After more than a year of preparation, doctors were set to begin the complicated, rare surgery to separate 2-year-old twins from Egypt joined at the crown of their heads.

"Nobody goes into this lightly," said Dr. Dale Swift, one of five pediatric neurosurgeons who will operate on the twins Saturday at Children's Medical Center Dallas. "At this point, we think it's the right thing to do."

The surgery, expected to last 18 to 24 hours, is risky - one or both of the boys may die. They each have their own brains, but share an extensive attachment of blood vessels. If they survive, some brain damage is inevitable.

Surgeons across the globe have conducted at least five surgeries in the past three years to separate twins joined at the head. Three were successful; one resulted in one twin dying and in another both twins died.

twins

But I will wish them well also, poor little guys.