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CNN SATURDAY MORNING NEWS
Egyptian Twins To Undergo Surgery to be Separated
Aired October 11, 2003 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: About an hour from now in a Dallas hospital, doctors will begin a risky operation to separate 2-year-old Egyptian twins joined at the head. A team of about 60 medical personnel will assist in this complicated procedure.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to tell us more about the risks that are involved -- now they've been preparing for this for months now.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have. They've been in this country for months and months preparing for this surgery, undergoing pre-operative procedures that are necessary before the twins are to be separated. The twins are two years old. Their names are Mohamed and Ahmed Ibrahim and you can see them here. They are joined at the top of the head. This is a very unusual way to be joined. It happens in just one out of every 10 million births.
Now, these boys share 10 percent of their brain tissue and many of their blood vessels are intertwined. So this presents a huge challenge for the surgeons. The surgeons have obviously said that they're hoping for the best, but they have also been very clear that one or both of these boys could die during or after the surgery and that there's also a risk of brain damage if they do survive.
And those are some of the challenges that they're facing. The more brain tissue, the more blood vessels that are shared, the riskier it is.
KOPPEL: So what are the doctors -- what kind of chance are the doctors giving one or both of the boys to surviving?
COHEN: They tend not to give numbers in this situation because there's not a lot of data to go on. It's just, this doesn't happen very often. We can remember, for example, last year when the two Marias, the two Guatemalan twins, were separated. And again there, they didn't give numbers. Although they were joined in the same way, it was a little bit different. They didn't share as much brain tissue. They didn't share as many blood vessels. So they actually had a better chance and have been doing quite well. but in both cases they don't give numbers because each case is so individual.
KOPPEL: Oh, well, we certainly wish them all...
COHEN: Crossing our fingers.
KOPPEL: Absolutely. Elizabeth, thank you.
COHEN: Thanks.
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