Conjoined Twins Separated 7 Years Ago at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Featured in August 2nd People Magazine
LOS ANGELES--James E. Stein, MD, vice chair, Department of Surgery at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, is featured in People magazine’s August 2nd issue as the magazine revisits a story from 2003 when Dr. Stein led a 60-member medical and surgical team in a rare, highly complex and historic procedure to separate twin girls, Macey and MacKenzie Garrison. In this issue, on newsstands now, People shares how the girls are living – “A Beautiful Life.�??
Surgeons began the nearly 24-hour operation Wednesday morning September 10, 2003, delicately separating a number of the girls' internal organs. When media originally covered this story, the identity of the babies was confidential and the babies were simply known as Baby A and Baby B.
The identical twins were each born with one normally developed leg, and they shared a conjoined leg. Doctors used that leg to replace tissue and bone in the girls' pelvic regions. The large intestine could not be divided and went to one twin. Surgeons also performed a liver separation and did reconstruction on the girls' urinary and reproductive tracts. The girls were born with a fraternal triplet sister who developed normally. The case marks the second known instance of conjoined twins born as part of a triplet set, according to the hospital.
Dr. Stein has been an attending pediatric surgeon in the Division of Pediatric Surgery of the Department of Surgery at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles since 1996. He is an assistant professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
For interviews with Jim Stein or any additional questions about the story, please contact Janet Dotson (323) 636-9306. Footage of the original surgery and still photographs are available.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6372978&lang=en