ShareThisBy ROBERT MATAS
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Conjoined twins Krista and Tatiana were born at a Vancouver hospital, vigorous, wiggly and very vocal.
The girls, who each weighed about 61/2 pounds and were equal in length, were joined at the head, an extremely rare situation.
Photos taken in the operating room by a family member and provided to CTV News show the infants moments after their birth on Wednesday. Their skin appeared red and puffy; their eyes were squeezed tightly closed; their tiny hands were scrunched up at their shoulders. They lay at right angles to each other, their heads joined at the top.
"It was fantastic to actually see that they're alive and doing well," grandmother Louise McKay told CTV. She said she was worried that the babies would not make it.
The excited grandmother said the experience was "just absolutely awesome." She was thrilled she got to touch them. "They were crying in sequence together, and if you put a soother in one mouth, then they both stop crying. It's kinda cute."
Marisa Nichini, a spokeswoman for British Columbia Women's Hospital and Health Center, was beaming with joy as she recounted the events for reporters.
"It's early days, but they are doing very well at this point," she said.. "Everything went well and according to plan."
The identical twins were breathing on their own and in stable condition.
The mother, Felicia Simms, 21, was awake throughout the one-hour delivery by caesarean section. She was resting and also doing well.
Simms, who has two children aged 2 and 3, gave birth to the twins in the 34th week of her pregnancy. It was not clear when efforts will be made to separate them.
Doug Cochrane, a paediatric neurosurgeon at B.C. Children's Hospital, told reporters before the birth that the twins may be so intricately conjoined that an operation to separate them may not be feasible. Some conjoined twins are not separable without substantial risk to one or both of them, he said.
He anticipated that recommendations about the feasibility of separation will occur over several months and discussions with the family will continue for many additional months.
