FIVE-month-old conjoined twins Michal and Marek Müller were surgically separated on September 14, the SITA newswire wrote. Unfortunately, both of them died within two months of the marathon surgery.
Marek and Michal were born on April 11. They were joined at the chest and shared a liver and gall bladder. The operation was necessary because the baby boys had difficulty breathing and their lungs could not develop properly.
The operation to separate them was carried out in two stages – separation and reconstruction – and lasted almost 20 hours.
Not long after the surgery, the clinic’s head surgeon, Vladimír Cingel, told the SITA newswire that both of the operation phases went as well as they could have.
But complications arose shortly after that. Marek contracted a serious infection, and in spite of intensive medical treatment and life support, he suffered multiple organ failure and brain damage and his nervous system broke down. He died on October 4.
Michal’s prognosis was better from the beginning, but after the surgery he suffered digestive problems. He died on November 9, the Pravda daily wrote.
In 2000, Slovak doctors successfully separated two baby girls, who were joined at the pelvis. The twins are now doing well.
17. Dec 2007 at 0:00 | Jana Liptáková
