Conjoined Twins Share Liver, To Be Separated

Sat., Oct. 21, 2000

Conjoined twin girls who share a liver will be separated within a month, and each is expected to develop normally except for a little plastic surgery to give them the one thing they lack - bellybuttons.

Alaina and Xela Bryce, born Wednesday at Legacy Emanuel Hospital, also shared one umbilical cord, leaving both without a navel.

The twins’ mother, Taluai Bryce, 23, of Vancouver, Wash., delivered the babies by Caesarean section two weeks before their due date. The girls were both in good condition at the neonatal intensive care unit at Legacy Emanuel.

“As the girls were delivered, they were already swatting at each other and crying before their feet even got out of the mother’s abdomen,” Dr. Andy Merrill said. “That was a big relief to everyone.”

Doctors are doing tests to determine if the girls share any other organs. Xela, the smaller of the two girls, has a severe heart defect that will require surgery, a doctor said. The girls will be separated before Xela begins to weaken from the two holes in her heart. Her heart defect will be repaired in a second operation.

Doctors believe both girls have enough of the shared liver to survive on their own.

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