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Clarence Plays and Keeps Time To His Wiggles Music
New York City, New York (August 19, 2004) – The heavy bandages on formerly conjoined twin Carl Aguirre apparently became too annoying for him today, so he just took them off, surprising his nurses and plastic surgeon. One minute he had the bandages on, the next, he was holding a turban-like mass of gauze right by his side looking mischievously at his nurse as she rushed in.
David Staffenberg, MD, chief of pediatric plastic surgery at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM), where Carl and brother Clarence had their surgery, also seemed a little gobsmacked at Carl’s assertive action. “I guess he’s bounding back pretty fast from yesterday’s half-hour operating room procedure where I did some minor maintenance work on his surgical site,” he said. “There’s just no stopping him.” An attempt was made to secure the head bandage with a strand of gauze serving as a chinstrap. At last report Carl was working to remove that one, too.
Brother Clarence was his usual playful self all day, keeping time to music from a Wiggles tape, and pulling his purple slinky toy from his grandmother Evelyn’s hands. At the same time, he refused to let go of a large Scooby Doo balloon a visitor had brought.
The boys underwent the final stage in a series of four operations that saw them successfully separated two weeks ago. They had been joined at the tops of their heads.
Doctors continue to be very pleased with the progress the boys are making but they say the twins still have a long way to go for a complete recovery. No date has yet been set for Carl and Clarence to return to speech, nutrition and recreation therapy in preparation for reconstructive surgeries on their skulls back at CHAM in several months.
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