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New York City, New York (August 12, 2004) – Formerly conjoined Filipino twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre are resting comfortably in their room at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) today, one week after successful surgery to separate them. They had been joined at the tops of their heads.
According to one of their two lead surgeons, David Staffenberg, MD, chief of pediatric plastic surgery at CHAM , “the boys are recovering at lightning speed. They’re just like any other young patients who have undergone craniofacial surgery.” No major medical recuperative problems have been apparent.
Tuesday afternoon, the boys' beds were rearranged so they could look at each other for the first time. Carl and Clarence looked in one another's direction, but were still too groggy to have reacted with much enthusiasm. Their mother Arlene, tried to get hem to look at each other, gently asking, "Clarence, where's your brother? Carl, where's your brother?"
Today the twins were watching their favorite morning television program, as they do every morning, The Wiggles. Their eyes barely leaving the TV screen. Once in a while they’d each yawn deeply then go right back to the program.
“Clarence has been on solid food for two days now and devoured his hot cereal this morning for breakfast,” said Robert Marion, MD, the boy’s pediatrician. “Brother Carl, did not appear in the mood for his pureed banana,” according to Dr. Marion. “When critical nurse Marcel Stevenson tried to feed him, he just kept forcefully pushing her hand away.” Dr. Marion said even he was surprised at the force Carl used in saying “no” to his first solid meal.
The boys’ medical team has not yet set a date when Carl and Clarence are to return to Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Westchester to resume physical and speech therapy. The next steps in the boys’ surgical procedures at CHAM will be reconstructive surgery on the tops their skulls where the separation took place. No dates for those procedures have been set.
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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.
