Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 21, 1993 TAG: 9308210182
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium
Angela was resting comfortably after the surgery, and her doctors were hopeful. Amy died about two-thirds of the way through the operation.
Before the surgery, nurses had painted Angela's tiny fingernails pink and left her sister's bare. The infant twins' parents interpreted that as a sign - Amy would die to give Angela a narrow chance at life.
Family members said their goodbyes Friday morning before doctors at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia began the operation.
"It's hard to say goodbye to a living person," said the girls' father, Kenneth Lakeberg.
After the operation, Angela was in critical condition.
"Angela is stable, comfortable and we hope that will continue to be the case," said Dr. James A. O'Neill Jr., the lead surgeon. "Obviously, we're sad that Amy could not be a part of continuing with her sister. That's the difficult part for us and her family.
"It is obviously too early to predict what the outcome will be, but it is encouraging so far," he said.
Surgeons began at 8:05 a.m. and reported that they completed separating the twins' liver tissue by late morning. They then moved on to reconstructing the six-chambered heart, a task they called daunting. A normal heart has four chambers.
Kenneth Lakeberg and his wife, Reitha "Joey" Lakeberg, stayed in seclusion in the hospital during the operation.
Afterward, the father said, "I honestly didn't think either one would make it out of the operating room."
He confused the twins' names as he described how doctors told him and his wife that the operation was completed.
"They came in and said it was over. Within an hour we were in there with Amy. She kind of peeked her eyes open. Angela, I'm sorry."
The twins' aunt, Georgia Welsh, said of the parents, "Today it hit them . . . They took it really hard today. They kissed them and they hugged them, and then they said goodbye."
Welsh sat outside the hospital, crying occasionally and talking about her nieces. She made funeral arrangements for Amy Lakeberg over a cellular phone.
"We wished the very best to Amy. We know God's with her," Welsh said. "I told her I loved her and I thanked her for the time that we had."
Angela, she said, gave the family strength during the final minutes.
"We were all standing there praying and Angela holds her hand up with her thumb in the air. Joey said, `That's right, Angela, thumbs up,' " Welsh said.
In one hand, Welsh clutched a plaster imprint of both twins' 2-inch hands, made minutes before they were anesthetized for surgery. In the other, she held a clown doll they played with during their last moments of consciousness together.
The operation was the fourth at the hospital on conjoined twins with shared hearts. The longest survivor, separated in 1977, died of liver failure after three months.
by CNB