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New York City, NY (May 26, 2004) – Conjoined Filipino twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre are getting stronger every day and like mischievous two-year-olds everywhere, have been “testing” their nursing team with tricks galore.
“Carl has become so strong he’s able to hold my hand and pull himself and his brother partially up from their bed,” said David Staffenberg, MD, the boys’ plastic surgeon and one of the two lead doctors at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore working to separate the boys. “Carl’s speech is becoming much clearer,” said Dr. Staffenberg, “with words such as ‘hi’ and ‘mama’ now much more understandable. Neither twin has yet put together words or sentences. And Clarence just keeps laughing all the time.”
According to Dr. Staffenberg, the twins are acting exactly like the two-year-olds they’ve just become, having celebrated their second birthday on April 21st.
“They’re testing their nurses for reactions,” he said. “They pull at each other’s feeding tubes and pull them out just to see how the nurses will react. At first the nurses treated their tricks as cute and evidence that the brothers were feeling well after their surgeries,” said Dr. Staffenberg. “Now they have to react quite sternly to let Carl and Clarence know that what they’re doing is wrong.”
Dr. Staffenberg and James T. Goodrich, MD, pediatric neurosurgeon and co-leader of the CHAM team, have set a tentative date of June 2nd for Carl and Clarence’s next procedure. This will be the surgery to insert tissue expanders beneath the skin covering the boys’ skulls, which will help gradually stretch the existing skin so there will be sufficient skin available to cover the tops of the boys’ heads once final separation surgery takes place. It is expected that the next separation surgery will occur approximately six to seven weeks later, depending on how the boys are doing.
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