Successfully Separated Siamese Twin Patients at the University Hospital of Maracaibo
The surgical intervention was qualified as a success that this Wednesday managed to separate the sisters Ana Ruth and Ana Saray Pertuz, eight months old, joined from the thorax to the navel. The operation was carried out in the University Hospital of Maracaibo, the birthplace of the Siamese twins, with a multidisciplinary local medical team.
In a press conference held on Thursday, the director of the health center, Mervin Urbina, explained that the surgery lasted six and a half hours, and there were no complications. He also said that the girls will be held in intensive care between 48 and 72 hours , and then be transferred to the hospitalization area, reported the newspaper Panorama .
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Ana Ruth and Ana Saray, born on September 16, 2018, were joined by the abdomen and the lower part of the thorax, sharing a part of the liver and from the thoracic part, the sternum and the diaphragm.
Urbina mentioned that one of the most complex parts of the operation was the separation of the liver , but it was possible to section the organ and leave a similar portion for each of the patients.
The intervention involved more than thirty medical professionals from different pediatric areas, as well as ample nursing and instrumentation personnel.
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It is the second time that a procedure of this nature has been carried out at the University Hospital of Maracaibo. In March 2007, in those same pavilions, they separated María Fernanda and María Victoria Alarcón Arroyo, other Zulia-born Siamese twin women born on October 5, 2006.
The twins are daughters of Daniela Pertuz, 24 years old, for whom the condition of their babies was a surprise, given that it was not diagnosed in the prenatal monitoring. Pertuz is a resident of the La Esperanza neighborhood, of the San Isidro parish, in Maracaibo.
Since her birth, the girls have been inpatients in the University Hospital of Maracaibo, where all the necessary treatments for their survival have been carried out free of charge. Mother and grandmother told the newspaper Panorama that at no time did the health center lack supplies, equipment or personnel to assist the girls, and they also were supported by public and private fundraisers.
Translated by: JRE/EF
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