Sight of Each Other Still Days Away for Twins

UCLA physicians say it will be at least a few more days before 1-year-old Guatemalan twins Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus Quiej Alvarez can open their eyes and get their first glimpse of one another.

The formerly conjoined twins are in critical but stable condition after a 22-hour operation to separate them. Maria Teresa underwent five more hours of surgery Tuesday to remove a pool of blood that had formed under her scalp.

On Wednesday, doctors expressed confidence that both girls would survive.

“These children are very sick, but we take care of sick kids all the time,” said Dr. Andy Madikians, the attending physician in the pediatric intensive care unit at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital. “Once we get the breathing tubes out, we’ll have a better way of judging.”

The pair lay motionless Wednesday in separate beds in a corner of the unit, each attached to a cardiac monitor and a ventilator. Bandages covered the tops of their heads and were wrapped under their chins, obscuring most of their faces. Under the bandages, Maria Teresa had a device to measure the pressure inside her head. Both twins were heavily sedated.

The sedation “gives us a good 24 to 48 hours to let the brain relax after the surgery,” Madikians said. Within the next day, physicians will start reducing the anesthesia, and the girls will start breathing on their own within a week, he said.

“The first 48 hours are more critical,” Madikians said. “Every day after that, the chances of swelling are less and less.”

Each twin has a nurse assigned to her around the clock.

At a news conference Wednesday, the girls’ father marveled at how different las Maritas look, now that they are separated. He said he has trouble recognizing their features.

The father, Wenceslao Quiej Lopez, 21, attended the conference with two nieces, his cousin and his wife, Alba Leticia Alvarez, 22. Alvarez, who has avoided media contact in recent days, stood by her husband but did not answer any questions.

“They give thanks to God that their children are doing well,” said Berta Acosta, a pediatric intensive care unit nurse who translated for the father. “He feels that the future looks very bright for his children. It was difficult to care for them when they were attached.”

Lopez wasn’t the only one who was grateful. The Guatemalan consul this week sent a letter of thanks to the UCLA doctors and “all concerned” for this “marvelous gesture of good will.”

The consul, John L. Uhmen, wrote that the Guatemalan people in that Central American nation and all over the world are following the events with interest.

“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!” he wrote.

The girls were born with their skulls fused at the top so they faced opposite directions.

UCLA surgeons worked through the night Monday to cut through the bone, redirect shared blood vessels and cover the exposed brain with skin.

An international medical charity, Healing the Children, paid to fly the twins and their mother to Los Angeles and persuaded UCLA physicians to perform the surgery. The doctors donated their services.

UCLA hopes to recoup the cost of the twins’ care, estimated at $1.5 million, through donations to a fund set up in the sisters’ names.

Donations to UCLA should be made payable to the UCLA Foundation and mailed to UCLA Medical Sciences Development, 10945 Le Conte Ave., Suite 3132, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Donations for the twins should go to Healing the Children, Box 221478, Newhall, CA 91322.