Egyptian twins conscious and in ongoing recovery

Published on Saturday 18 October 2003 01:00

THE twin Egyptian boys separated after being joined at the head have both regained consciousness from and have movement in all of their limbs, doctors said last night.

Dr James Thomas, director of critical care at Children’s Medical Centre in Dallas, where two-year-old Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim were separated on Sunday, said the boys have come a long way in five days of recovery from their 34-hour operation.

In another positive report on the boys’ progress, Dr Thomas said: "They are both showing signs of ongoing neurological recovery. Both now open their eyes when spoken to, and they appear to be searching out the voice calling their name."

Mohamed, dubbed "the rascal" for his mischievous ways, has recovered more quickly than his brother.

The boys showed signs of fever and were restarted on a course of antibiotics. Infection is one of an array of items that can cause a life-threatening situation in the crucial post-operative period.

Dr Thomas said he was amazed at walking into the rooms of the twins, calling out their names, and seeing them respond. Only five days ago, a team of five neurosurgeons separated their shared brain material and the shared circulatory systems that feed blood to their brains.

"You feel like, wow, we’ve come a long way," Dr Thomas said.

Mohamed is scheduled for surgery today as doctors examine a skin graft on his temple that was put in place to help repair the wounds from surgery. Over the next few days, doctors will take the boys off mechanical ventilators that are aiding their breathing. Both boys are breathing through the devices now, he said.

The boys lie under sedation in separate rooms on beds designed to rotate their bodies so that they do not develop bed sores.

Both have had a helmet of gauze bandages that had been in place after the surgery removed. In their waking moments, they try to focus on objects in their rooms.

Their parents visit the boys frequently, speaking to their sons and holding their hands.

The boys were born in a town 500 miles south of Cairo, in June 2001.

Twins conjoined at the head account for about one of every 2.5 million births and about 2 per cent of all conjoined births.