 |
New York City, NY (August 14, 2004) – Doctors at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore report that formerly conjoined Filipino twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre continue to rebound at “lightning” speed from the surgery that separated them.
“They’re behaving like babies who have had a craniofacial operation half as long as theirs,” said David Staffenberg, MD, one of the two lead surgeons on the boys’ medical team. The twins underwent a 17-hour procedure separating them Wednesday, August 4. They had been joined at the tops of their heads.
According to Dr. Staffenberg, “Carl and Clarence have undergone CT scans of their brains and X-rays of their chests and there are no problems.” Clarence, who’s always suffered from hypertension, “is now off his blood pressure medicine with no adverse reactions,” Dr. Staffenberg said.
The boys have undergone four staged operations culminating in the last one two weeks ago. As with past procedures, Carl has remained subdued for a longer period after surgery, and is still refusing to eat solid food, pushing away his nurses’ hands when they try to feed him. His pediatrician, Robert Marion, MD, said “Carl has never liked anything new and is acting just like he always does. If eyes could tell the story, Carl’s would. He doesn’t miss a trick,” said Dr. Marion. “His eyes are constantly darting around, taking in everything, especially what’s on the TV set.”
Clarence has rebounded much faster. Today he was smiling broadly as his mother, Arlene, played with him, making fish faces by puckering his lips. Clarence was also keeping time to the music on a Wiggles tape with his rattle and a new set of jingle bells. He also kept raising his legs at 90 degree angles to his mattress, just like his old self.
Doctors are still closely monitoring the twins and no date has as yet been set for them to return to Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, NY where they have been staying been staying between surgeries at Montefiore, and receiving speech, physical and interactive therapy.
For the News Media
Contact our public relations staff.
Our Public Relations team is informed, connected and responsive. We are at your service, on call 24/7, and we will work hard to help you in any way we can – whether by tracking down sources for your stories or arranging video shoots, or getting an expert to help you in your background research.
Call us at 718.920.4011, or click here to view our Office of Public Relations contacts.
Chief, Critical Care Medicine
We treat the most fragile patients in Montefiore’s medical, surgical, neurological and cardiothoracic intensive care units, but critical care at Montefiore also extends beyond those areas. Our unique "ICU Without Walls" service is a rapid response team of intensivists and respiratory therapists who are on call 24/7 to evaluate and treat patients in need of critical care in other areas of the hospital.
