Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993                   TAG: 9308220092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Medium

SIAMESE TWIN'S EYES DISPLAY SIGNS OF LIFE

The 7-week-old baby reportedly was sucking her thumb, wetting diapers and squeezing her parents' fingers Saturday. But the ultimate delight, a beaming Kenneth Lakeberg said at a news conference, was that "her eyes were open.. . . It was unbelievable!

"We're just fascinated by all of this," the father said. "The doctors gave us this chance - this less than 1 percent chance - and here she is with her eyes open."

"Angela is increasingly active, with good blood pressure and good circulation," said Dr. John Templeton, a leading surgeon in Friday's operation that separated the twins.

Nonetheless, with Angela listed in critical but stable condition in an intensive-care unit of Philadelphia's Children's Hospital, Lakeberg and his wife, Reitha, conceded that their optimism was tinged with a bittersweet reality that Angela might die.

It was a prospect the Wheatfield, Ind., couple earnestly considered during a week in which they were so on edge that they stole only 16 hours of sleep. A week in which the couple, also parents of a 5-year-old, saw their twin daughter Amy die in a potentially futile effort to save Angela.

"Of course I'm sad we lost Amy. It's like alternate currents, going from negative to positive," the father said of the family's emotional ups and downs.

Amy's funeral, as yet unscheduled, will be private, and in Indiana.

Even if her sister Angela does not survive, the bid to save her would not have been pointless, an obviously weary, soft-spoken Reitha Lakeberg said. The mother believes the operation will help doctors better understand the medical mysteries of conjoined twins, who most often are female and represent one in every 50,000 to 60,000 births.

The Lakeberg babies were the 13th such twins to undergo surgery at Children's Hospital, which in 1957 became the nation's pioneer in this type of operation.

Those operations, however, have not prolonged life substantially for any of the twins with shared hearts. Two such babies died within hours after surgery there. A third infant lived for three months.

Angela continues to be closely watched during what hospital officials say is a crucial 72-hour period following the 5 1/2-hour operation.