Historic Separation

Two little girls named Nancy and Ellen, who live in a Cleveland suburb, had their first birthday last week and thereby set a medical milestone: they are the first Siamese twins known to have survived so long after an operation to separate them. This is mainly because, unlike such famous Siamese twins as Chang and Eng and the Brodie brothers, they were joined by nothing more than skin and gristle.

Obstetrician Hyatt Reitman of Cleve land's Mount Sinai Hospital had no rea son to anticipate that their mother, aged 27, was going to bear joined twins. X rays had shown that they could move freely in the womb, sometimes lying head to head, sometimes head to toes. But when the first baby was half delivered, Dr. Reitman ran into trouble because the baby was pulling the second twin with her. Soon he saw why: they were joined at the base of the breastbone by a band of tissue half an inch wide, an inch and a half long. Forceps brought the second baby into the world.

Prompt tests by Pediatrician Earl E. Smith showed that the joining band was composed mainly of cartilage. The twins did not share any vital organs or systems. So Surgeon Jac S. Geller swiftly cut them apart under local anesthesia (TIME, Dec. 29). All that either of the blue-eyed girls has to show for the historic operation is a small scar.

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