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New York City, NY (January 30, 2004) – The major snowstorm this week afforded conjoined Filipino twins Clarence and Carl Aguirre their first ever “play date” out in the masses of swirling, fluffy white stuff, accompanied by their mother, Arlene. The now 22-month old boys were bundled up against the cold and then wheeled out into the falling snow in a special stroller, designed to accommodate the brothers who were born joined at the tops of their heads.
“The snow is high enough so that they could stick their hands into it, and they just kept grabbing fistfuls of snow in their little hands and tossing it about,” said Ms. Aguirre. “Snow is an extraordinary experience for Carl, Clarence and me, since it never falls below 70 degrees in our home in the Philippines.”
The twins will return to the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) next week for a new series of highly-detailed CT and MRI imaging scans in preparation for the next in a series of surgeries at CHAM which ultimately will separate the boys.
“The new scans will give our surgical team a more up-to-date view of the newly developing system of veins in the boys’ heads,” said David Staffenberg, MD, chief of pediatric plastic surgery, CHAM, and one of the lead surgeons on the separation team. “Because several significant veins were tied-off in the last surgery, we must know exactly how blood is flowing between the two boys to help plan our surgical approach.”
“There are two major veins remaining to be tied off,” said James T. Goodrich, MD, chief of pediatric neurosurgery, CHAM, and co-lead surgeon. “I’d rather not speculate about when the “final separation” will take place, nor about how many more procedures it will take to reach that goal,” said Dr. Goodrich. “How well Carl and Clarence respond to each of the stages in this separation process is determining when we take the next steps and how we move forward.”
The brothers have already been through two major separation procedures and are awaiting a third. So far there has been no neurological compromise in either twin resulting from the surgeries, which has been the number one goal for the team involved.
“The boys are doing spectacularly well,” said Robert Marion, MD, the boys’ lead pediatrician at CHAM. “Since their arrival four months ago they’ve gained twelve pounds, which is key to how well they are tolerating the surgeries and progressing in physical therapy. They now weigh a combined 36 pounds.”
Dr. Marion reports that the boys’ vocabularies are increasing, “When they first arrived they had not yet started to speak, and now they pretty regularly say ‘bye-bye,’ ‘baby,’ and ‘mama,’” Dr. Marion said. “They are noticeably stronger, and flex their arms to make a muscle when anyone asks them ‘who’s the strongest man?’” said Dr. Marion.
Between the delicate separation surgeries the twins are undergoing at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, they are staying at Blythedale Children’s Hospital where they undergo nutrition, physical and speech therapy.
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Director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery,
CHAM
We're known around the world for successfully separating Carl and Clarence Aguirre, born joined at the tops of their heads. Our specialists care daily for children with brain tumors, spinal cord injuries and craniofacial deformities.
