Prayer & Surgery

In a New Orleans hospital last week, Ashton Mouton and his wife Rosa looked down on one of the most satisfying sights of their lives: their twin daughters, two months old, asleep for the first time in separate cribs. Until last week, Carolyn Anne and Catherine Anne had been pygopagus twins, joined at the lower ends of their spines.

Two days after their birth in Lafayette, La. (pop. 33,541), where Ashton Mouton is mayor, the twins were taken to New Orleans' Ochsner Foundation Hospital. There, for weeks, a team of doctors poked, prodded and X-rayed to map the exact extent of the girls' connection.

In their reactions, the children were bright and alert, and they had separate nervous systems. Their circulatory systems also seemed separate, and each girl had her own genitourinary tract. But their lower intestines were connected, and X rays showed that the bone structure of their lower spines and the tough dural membrane that covers the spinal cord were joined.

Nowhere in medical history could the Ochsner staff find a record of successful separation of pygopagus Siamese twins. Yet Carolyn Anne and Catherine Anne were thriving (by last week they jointly weighed 14 Ibs. 8 oz.). The doctors told Mayor and Mrs. Mouton that there was a good chance both would survive surgery. The Moutons agreed to the attempt.

All over New Orleans thousands prayed for the little girls and waited anxiously for hospital bulletins. Colostomy operations (to give each child an artificial rectum) had already been performed so as to lower the danger of infection during the main operation. Then, one morning last week, they were wheeled into the operating room. A team of 15 doctors worked for 2 1/4 hours to complete the delicate job. Near by, the parents waited. Everything went according to plan. More spinal bone was joined than the surgeons had anticipated, but there were no unexpected difficulties.

"The outlook," said Hospital Superintendent Dr. Lester L. Weismiller, "is very good . . . Every passing hour increases their chances for survival." Soon, if all goes well, the twin with the complete lower intestine will have her colostomy sewed up; the other may need hers for life.

"We're hoping to have the girls home by Christmas time," said Rosa Mouton. "God," said Ashton Mouton, "was most generous."

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