FORT WORTH, Texas -- Doctors have no map for how to separate conjoined twins.
The complex surgery is so rare and unique to each individual pair of babies that medical teams often start from scratch when evaluating whether twins could even survive the operation. Add the months of planning required before entering the operating room and the surgery becomes even more arduous.
A group of 25 medical staff at Cook Children’s Medical Center carried out such a surgery on Jan. 23. For one plastic surgeon, Dr. Ben Gbulie, the case represented his third time separating twins. For most of the other practitioners, it was the first time they’d ever performed the risky operation.
