Faith and Hope More Than Just Words

I just found this to be rather sad. I hope the family will get better in time.

Conjoined twin dies after surgery
Conjoined twins Hope and Faith
The twins shared a liver but had separate hearts

One of the conjoined twins separated at Great Ormond Street Hospital has died.

Hope Williams - whose sister Faith is said to be in a stable condition - died because her lungs failed her, Professor Agostino Pierro said.

Laura Williams, 18, from Shrewsbury, gave birth to the girls at a London hospital on 26 November.

The twins, who were joined at the chest and shared a liver but had separate hearts, underwent an operation to separate them on Tuesday.

Emergency operation

Mrs Williams and her husband Aled, from Anglesey, were with Hope when she died.

Professor Pierro, head of the surgical team which operated on the girls, said Faith needed support for her breathing but was gradually improving.

HOW THE TWINS WERE JOINED

The twins shared a liver and circulatory system. Hope was the smaller of the two.
A team of 20 led by Professor Agostino Pierro performed an operation lasting 11 hours.
After separation, Hope's lungs failed and she died.
Faith is in a stable condition. More surgery will be needed on her abdomen. She is said to have a 50/50 chance of survival.

The team continued to operate on Faith after Hope's death and the whole procedure took about 11 hours.

Faith will need further surgery to close her stomach and is in intensive care.

The hospital had wanted to wait until the twins were stronger before carrying out the operation, but it was brought forward after their health gave cause for concern.

Prof Pierro said: "This was an emergency operation because there was a blockage in their joined intestine which could only be resolved through separation.

"The technical separation worked well, although it was extremely challenging, and went according to plan."

'Right words'

Jessica Culver, a friend who has a son close in age to the Williams' 18-month-old daughter Carley, spoke to Mrs Williams after Hope died.

"I can't say that I understand because I've never lost a child," said Ms Culver.

"It was just really difficult. I mean, finding the right words to say to her and just trying to show her that she's still got Carly and she's got Faith as well to look forward to bringing home.

"I know it's not going to be as good as taking home both of them, but at least she still has got Faith left."

Prof Pierro added he was sorry for Mr and Mrs Williams' loss.

"The parents are coping extremely well and I am grateful to them for their support," he said.

Professor Agostino Pierro: 'The operation was very challenging'

More than 20 staff were involved in the operation and Professor Pierro said it was one of the most challenging and complex he, and hospital staff, had ever faced.

"We separated the babies and unfortunately, after separation of the babies, Hope's lungs were too small to support her breathing and circulation.

"So eventually she died because of a lung condition and in reality what happened before is that the lungs of Faith were somehow supporting Hope," he said.

Staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital are considered to be among the most experienced in Europe in separating conjoined twins.

Mrs Williams is believed to be the youngest mother of conjoined twins in Britain.

She and her husband found out about their children's condition at a routine 12-week scan.

This article comes from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/shropshire/7762359.stm

Blog Abandonment

Wow, i cant beleive i havent posted for a whole month! Then again i can believe it.im not really a constant blogger like some of my coworkers are ( y'all kno yourselves...Brain! Hardy!)But anyways its not like ill be able to blog this month either ....its that time of year when final exams take over my life so ill be concentrating on this for the time being.

i guess one can say that i've abandoned my precious blog. sigh.

Sometimes Work Can Be Fun

In my line of work, lets call it marketing (seeing that I cant really say what my company does on my blog...i know its weird)I tend to come across a wide range of interesting stuff. So while working on some "slow day" stuff I stumble across a little fellow I dubbed Wiener Dog......not very original but it works.



The poor little pup, its a rough life being a wiener.

Does It Really Make Sense??

Well we've been having a lot of rain this week--thank you tropical wave and cold front (is it just me or doesn't this term just screams something sexual?). So whilst I enjoyed the rain (it sunny now), others are thanking God they made it through it. Earlier in the week it was broadcasted that this year's Digicel Rising Stars winner Camille Davis and other persons were rescued from the Bog Walk Gorge after being trapped there by the sudden rise of the Rio Cobre River (mind you they had only just reopened this section of roadway last month after it was badly damaged by the last hurricane we had).

I thought it would have been best to just close the gorge and save ourselves some well needed money. It is not the first time this same roadway has been damaged and after the job that Bougue(not sure if the spelling is right)did I think it might hold up a lot better than in recent years. However, there will always be the issue of the Rio Cobre flooding its banks during heavy rainfall. Yes, people should be mindful that the roadway is practically right on the bank of said river and should stay clear anytime there is going to be heavy rains but we all know how people are...they are going to take that route any ways. So there will always be a number of lives in danger.

I mean come on people! This government needs to wake up, so what if its the shortest route to the Ochie side of things...are you saying that you'd prefer to have to drag dead bodies out of the river than improve an alternative route for the safety of this country's people? I'm sure the Gorge can be put to good use. I faintly remember our transport or energy minister saying that it would be a good idea to transform the Gorge into a water catchment area...hey why not the river is right beside it anyways.

But as can be expected they behave like non-thinking adults and do the same thing that they always do that area...fix it up only to watch it return to a huge mess after a down pour. Not to sound ungrateful or anything (thank you Bougue for doing it for free) but it just doesn't make sense to me.