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Surgeons operate to separate Siamese twins after emergency
Anna Davis02.12.08
Conjoined twins Faith and Hope Williams were undergoing emergency separation surgery at Great Ormond Street hospital this afternoon.
The condition of the babies, who are joined from the breast bone to the navel, deteriorated overnight, prompting surgeons to rush them into theatre at 9am today.
A spokeswoman for Great Ormond Street Hospital said "concerns" developed last night. She added: "Obviously, the final decision about separation surgery was made by the family."
The twins were born last Wednesday by Caesarean section at University College Hospital, London, with a combined weight of 10lb 8oz. The girls would normally have been separated when older and stronger and doctors had been due to decide about their future this week.
Their mother Laura Williams, 18, from Shrewsbury, made medical history, becoming the youngest woman in the world to give birth to conjoined twins. She and her husband Aled, 28, from Anglesey, had defied doctors' advice to have an abortion.
A team of general surgeons, cardiologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, intensive care surgeons, radiologists, ethicists and nurses have been on standby for the operation since the twins' birth. Agostino Pierro, Nuffield Professor of Paediatric Surgery, was one of the doctors working on the twins today. Before the surgery, he said the sisters' hearts had significant congenital abnormalities. There were large blood vessels running from one child to the other, and there was concern that the sisters could deteriorate. They were also joined at the liver and intestine.
After the twins were born, Mrs Williams said: "They wheeled me in to see them. They had tucked Hope's arm underneath and it was Faith's arm that I could see. I took her hand and she was grasping my hand. They were both blowing bubbles. They were so beautiful. After everything everyone said, I'm so glad to have proved them wrong."
