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Tag: Conjoined Twins Separated

  • Conjoined Twins Celebrate 10 Years of Separation

    Conjoined twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre recently celebrated ten years of separation. The Negrenese children were formally separated on August 4, 2004, following four surgeries spanning nine months. The New York team of surgeons who performed the surgeries was led by pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. James Goodrich.

    On Monday many of the doctors, along with the formerly conjoined twins and their single mom Arlene, celebrated their separation at the hospital.

    “The people coming to the party are Filipino friends, doctors, nurses and friends of Clarence and Carl,” Arlene told the media.

    Carl and Clarence Aguirre have very distinct personalities these days.

    “Carl is the quiet one. He likes to be alone sometimes and likes to play video games. He still loves The Wiggles. Carl developed seizures two years after the separation but his medical condition is getting better,” their mom says.

    “Clarence is the outgoing kid, very sweet, very protective of his brother and very independent. He likes to dance and sing. He loves Michael Jackson, Maroon 5, Usher and One Direction. He likes playing video games, mostly superheroes. He is very helpful in the house,” she added.

    The entire process of having conjoined twins was compounded for Arlene Aguirre because she is a single mother and not a U.S. citizen, meaning she has no means of gaining employment.

    “The only thing that makes it a little bit better is because Montefiore helps me out with everything. And I have a lot of support and friends,” she said.

    Montefiore, New York is the city the Aguirre family now calls home. They are there on a medical visa.

    Dr. Ceres Baldevia is a Negrense doctor known for volunteering her services for free. She is proud that the conjoined twins were once her patients. She referred them to the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, New York, when they were a year old.

    “They are now 12-year-olds,” she said.

    Baldevia now lives in San Francisco. She added that Clarence and Carl still wear helmets to protect their skulls but once they are fully grown their skulls will be patched.

    Baldevia also said that the twins are under frequent medical observation and will likely have to remain in the United States permanently. Their multimillion-dollar operations and medical upkeep have been shouldered by the hospital.

    The hospital produced the following video clip about the conjoined twins a couple of years back.

    There have been fewer than twenty known cases of conjoined twins born around the world thus far in the 21st century–meaning Clarence and Carl are nothing short of a miracle.

    How wonderful that these conjoined twins are now celebrating ten years of separation. Just a few short decades ago they wouldn’t have had the chance to undergo these successful successions of surgical procedures.

    Image via YouTube

  • Conjoined Twins – Finally Living Apart

    Allison and Amelia Tucker were born conjoined at the chest and abdomen, and could not be separated at birth due to the extremely complicated surgery that it required. Or at least that is what they were told, and the twins spent half of their life attached to one another.

    When parents Shelly and Greg Tucker who reside in Adams, NY were told by their obstetrician who works with high risk pregnancies that their daughters were conjoined and would not likely be separated successfully, advising that they terminate the pregnancy, they sought a second opinion. They were determined to continue the pregnancy.

    “As he was telling me, I could literally feel the girls kicking in my belly and I knew that that wasn’t something possible,” Shellie said.

    When the Tuckers saw another physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – doctors said that the girls could be separated, and could have at birth.

    While the family waited for the surgery, the whole family lived at Children’s Hospital, their son Owen, then 2 years old and the twins.

    Doctors prepared for the surgery by practicing on two dolls sewn together.

    “The actual walk-through started with actual baby dolls that didn’t really look as cute as the girls but helped us out,” pediatric surgeon Dr. Holly Hedrick said at a news conference one month after the surgery.

    A team of 40 doctors, assistants and nurses performed the seven-hour grueling surgery, successfully separating Allison and Amelia – on November 7th, 2012.

    ‘Seeing the girls and seeing them climb and get in to things – as aggravated as I get I can’t help but laugh because they’re an absolute miracle,’ their mother Shellie told Good Morning America.

    Image via YouTube