Conjoined Twins - 1970's

A look at the 74 births and separation surgeries (51 sets of girls, 15 sets of boys, 7 sets of unknown gender, 1 supposed male/female set) we saw reported on the Web during the decade of the 1970s. Cases are shown in chronological order:

In February of 1970, thoracopagus twin girls, one or both of whom are anencephalic, are born in Pennsylvania. A risky separation procedure is carried out in Philadelphia and one sister passes away.

José Luciano and José Casimiro Mendoza are born conjoined at the buttocks in Peru in March of 1970. They are separated in Houston, Texas, on January 17, 1971.

Three-day-old Penny Renee and Patricia Kay Durbin of Missouri are separated on March 5, 1970. Sadly, Penny dies after surgery.

Angela and Antoinette Horton, pygopagus twins, are born in Georgia in May 1970. "Angie" and "Toni" are separated on June 3.

Conjoined twin boys are born May 17, 1970, to the Hussin family of Malaysia. The twins both die soon after birth.

A set of conjoined sisters is born in Great Britain on May 29, 1970, Anna and Barbara Rosycki. Anna and Barbara, born conjoined at the abdomen and sharing a liver, are separated just one day after birth. The operation is considered the first successful separation of conjoined twins in England.

Thoracopagus twin girls sharing a heart, liver and intestinal tract are born in Boston on August 3, 1970. Both sisters pass away three days later of pneumonia at Tufts University Medical Center while awaiting surgery to close a hole in one girl's trachea.

Thoracopagus twin girls with one heart are born in Ohio on October 1, 1970. Surgeons attempt to separate them at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston on October 28, with the intent of giving the heart to one twin and giving the other a transplant. Unfortunately, both girls die in surgery.

Omphalopagus twin sisters, identified only as Kristen and Heather, are born in Canada in 1971 and undergo successful separation in Toronto at the age of nine days.

Xiphopagus twin girls are born in Connecticut on June 6, 1971, but survive for just a few hours.

Chiara and Elena Cappelli are born to Marinella Cappelli, 32, in Mesagne, Italy on June 23, 1971. Thoracopagus twins joined at the heart, they only survive for two days.

Twins "linked so tightly at the pelvis that their sex cannot be determined" are born in Aschaffenburg, West Germany, on August 14, 1971. (Reuters, Aug. 19, 1971)

Thoracopagus twins with one heart are born at St. Ann's Hospital in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, on September 10, 1971. One is stillborn, while the other dies about 15 minutes after birth. Both parents have a family history of twins.

Xiphopagus twin sisters Cynthia and Christine are born on October 28, 1971, in a small town in Alberta, and successfully separated on January 9, 1972 at University Hospital in Edmonton.

Thoracopagus twins Christine and Betsy West are born in Georgia in 1972 and undergo separation at the age of two days. Betsy dies two weeks after surgery, but Christine survives and is now married.

Conjoined twins Rose Mary and Ann Mary Volse are born in Vacheria, Louisiana in 1972 and are separated in a four hour operation at Touro Infirmary on February 26. Ann unfortunately does not survive.

Thoracopagus twin girls with one heart are born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on June 6, 1972, but survive for just two days.

Thoracopagus twin girls with one heart are born in Taiwan on July 3, 1972.

Omphalopagus or ischiopagus twin girls called Huong and Lan are born in Vietnam in 1973 and undergo separation at the North Vietnamese-East German Clinic in Hanoi at the age of 13 days.

Conjoined twin brothers, Charles and Charleu Tenório da Silva are born in Arcoverde, Brazil in 1973. Successfully separated by Dr. Paulo Rabello at nine months of age, the two 27-year-old twins are still quite close today and live in Recife, Brazil. They are complete mirror-image identical twins with Charleu's heart on his right side, and Charles on his left side.

Craniopagus twin girls are born in Poland on February 12, 1973, but both die during a separation attempt on February 20.

Stillborn omphalopagus twin girls are born on the Caribbean island of Montserrat on February 21, 1973.

Thoracopagus twin girls sharing a heart are born in Minnesota on March 15, 1973. Exploratory surgery reveals that the girls also share a pancreas and that their livers are joined.

Conjoined twin sisters, Mildred and Hildred, are born in New York on April 5, 1973.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to the Piwaron family of Wisconsin on June 2, 1973, and only survive for one day.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to the wife of a priest on Malaita in the Solomon Islands in September of 1973 and both pass away from pneumonia on October 25.

Maylín and Mayelín Téllez Pupo are born conjoined at the abdomen in Cuba on December 18, 1973. They are successfully separated on December 27 and today both sisters are married and have children of their own.

Thoracopagus twins sharing a heart are born to a Chinese couple in Hong Kong in 1974 and remarkably survive to the age of 3 years and 7 months. They are flown to New Zealand in May of 1976 to determine whether or not they can be separated, but are brought home after surgeons decide that they cannot be. They are only the second recorded set of conjoined twins in Hong Kong, the first, who died at birth, having been born around 1962.

A set of conjoined sisters is born in Iran on January 17th, 1974, Laleh and Ladan Bijani. Connected at the head, they underwent separation surgery in July, 2003 that tragically resulted in the death of both of the sisters.

Craniopagus twins Sonia and Sophie Trinel are born in Gravelines, France on March 30, 1974 and are separated in July of 1975 by Prof. Bernard Pertuisset at the Necker Hospital in Paris. The surgery takes only three and a half hours.

Omphalopagus twin girls are born in British Columbia in May of 1974 and undergo successful separation on May 8.

Thoracopagus twin boys Silas and Abidnego Manoloto are born in the Philippines on June 23, 1974.

Pygopagus twin girls are born in Quebec City, Quebec, in June of 1974 and successfully separated at the University of Laval Hospital on October 8.

Clara and Altagracia Rodríguez are born in the Dominican Republic in August of 1973. Their mother, Farida Rodríguez, is told that the girls died at birth. The September 18, 1974, separation of the Rodríguez Twins from the Dominican Republic was performed at The Children's Hospital in Philadelphia by Dr. Everett C. Koop (later the Surgeon General of the United States and a veteran of several separation surgeries who was quoted in The Washington Post in 1988 as saying "I am willing to take any reasonable risk to separate Siamese twins because of the grotesque future they face"). A team of 23 doctors performed the surgery on the 13-month-old ischiopagus girls (they shared one liver and parts of the same colon). Both babies survive the separation, but Alta dies at age three after choking on a bean. Clara lives a healthy life in the Dominican Republic.

Pygopagus twin boys with the surname Gonzalez are born in Mexico on October 11, 1974.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to the Mr. and Mrs. Sevino Morales of East Los Angeles, California on October 13, 1974. The girls, who share a heart, undergo successful surgery nine hours after birth to close an omphalocele, but both die of a congenital lung defect three days later.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to the Foo family of Singapore in 1975. They undergo separation in Melbourne, Australia on August 11, 1975.

Omphalopagus twin girls are born to the McKee family of Arizona in May of 1975 and undergo separation after one twin dies.

Anna Marie and Millie Lula Cates, xiphopagus twins with joined livers, are born at St. Joseph's Hospital, Wichita, Kansas on November 7, 1975 to Ruth and William Cates. As the twins prepare to be separated, Mrs. Cates goes unannounced to visit an aunt, causing her husband to file a missing persons report and bringing even more publicity to the case. The girls are successfully separated on January 26, 1976. After the operation, Mr. Cates makes headlines again by kidnapping Millie from the hospital where the girls are recovering. It is revealed that the couple's other child, a boy, was removed from Mr. Cates' custody before the twins were born. When he goes to visit the newly separated twins, he waits for a security guard to turn his back and then flees with Millie.

Pygopagus twin girls are born to a peasant family in the Mekong Delta near Saigon, North Vietnam, on October 6, 1975, and are successfully separated at Saigon Infant Hospital on October 9 in a five-hour operation.

Brothers Hu Yongda and Hu Yongtao are born in China in November of 1975 and undergo separation the same year. They are thoracopagus twins.

The first successful separation surgery in Australia is performed on Andrew and Grant Priestley, omphalopagus twins, in about 1976.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to Carol and Glenn Bramlitt of Jacksonville, Florida, on March 9, 1976. Joined at the sternum, the girls have an omphalocele that is corrected soon after their birth. They are transferred to the Regional Neonatal Care Unit at University Hospital but both died of breathing difficulties early in the morning of March 11, about thirty minutes apart.

Omphalopagus twin girls, Marta and Almuneda Villar, are born in Spain in April of 1976 and undergo separation on November 14.

Also in April of 1976, female thoracopagus twins are born at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Omphalopagus twin boys sharing a liver are born in Argentina on April 23, 1976. They are successfully separated in a 4-hour operation in Buenos Aires, the first surgery of its type in the country.

Conjoined twins, reported as one boy and one girl, are born to the Harun family of Malaysia on May 20, 1976. Both children die at birth.

Thoracopagus twin boys, Craig and Greg Bongiorni, are born to Nyla and Gary Bongiorni of Thayer, Kansas on June 4, 1976. They are transfered soon after birth to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita and then to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston for evaluation for possible separation surgery. It is determined that they have joined hearts and livers and cannot be separated, and both pass away from heart failure on September 2.

Craniopagus twin girls are born to Terri and John Gough of Santa Barbara, California, in July of 1976. The sisters undergo a 6-hour operation to separate them in Los Angeles in September but only one twin, Ashley, survives.

Charlotte Marie and Paulette Marie Jones, ischio-omphalopagus twin girls, are born to Barbara Ann and Freddy Jones of Beaumont, Texas on July 14, 1976. Separation surgery is performed on August 20, 1976. Paulette survives, but Charlotte succumbs the following February.

In Nigeria, rare pygopagus twin brothers Assane and Ouasseni Moussa are born in August of 1976. They undergo separation in Paris on November 25, 1977.

Ischio-omphalopagus twin boys with three legs, Chang Chun-yi and Chang Chun-jen, are born in Taiwan on December 23, 1976 and abandoned at birth. The boys undergo separation surgery at Taiwan University Hospital on September 10, 1979. Today, both brothers use artificial limbs to get around but are otherwise doing well.

Linda and Brenda McCall are born to Glenda and James Arthur McCall in Mineola, New York on March 8, 1977, conjoined at the abdomen. The girls share no internal organs but the organs of each can pass through their connection into the abdominal cavity of the other, as described by their surgeon Dr. Keith Kenigsberg as "a plastic bag full of eels that can swing from one to the other" (New Castle News, Sept. 29, 1977). The sisters are successfully separated on September 27 at North Shore University Hospital.

In May of 1977, rare dicephalus tetrabrachius twins, Maria and Palma Zanoni, are born in Italy. The sisters are flown to Washington, D.C., where they undergo separation surgery on June 23. Dr. Judson G. Randolph, head of the surgical team, elects to try to save both girls instead of sacrificing one, even though he knows both have slim chances of survival. Sadly, Maria dies August 13, while Palma succumbs on November 29.

Thoracopagus twin boys are born to Ida and Jimmy Harp of Albany, Georgia on July 13, 1977. The boys have an omphalocele (opening in the abdominal wall) at birth and have a single heartbeat, leading doctors to believe they share a heart.

In Jamaica, Mrs. Addison gives birth to thoracopagus twin girls and a non-conjoined triplet boy on August 12, 1977. Sadly, all three babies die at birth.

Dicephalus tribrachius dipus twin girls are born in Arkansas on September 14, 1977. One sister suffers from severe birth defects and dies soon after birth. The survivor, Ferra Hope, is separated from her deceased twin on October 1, but she also succumbs on November 17.

Thoracopagus twin girls sharing a six-chambered heart are born at Monmouth General Hospital in Long Branch, New Jersey on September 15, 1977. They are surgically separated in Philadelphia on October 12 by Dr. C. Everett Koop, in a high-risk operation in which the smaller sister is intentionally sacrificed. Many of the operating room staff are said to be deeply disturbed by the death of the sacrificed sister and the hospital has to obtain a court order to authorize the ethically challenging surgery (Associated press, October 13, 1977). The surviving twin, "baby girl B", develops jaundice and is suspected to have cirrhosis.

On September 20, 1977, Amie Williamson of Arkansas, daughter of Cynthia Williams of Fayetteville, is surgically separated from her deceased conjoined twin, supposedly a boy. Amie suffers from multiple congenital disabilities including spina bifida and uses a wheelchair or a walker to get around, but according to a 1995 updated, she is healthy and happy despite her disabilities and set to attend Fayetteville Technical Community College.

Lisa and Elisa Hansen are born in Ogden, Utah on October 18, 1977. Born joined at the top of the head, they are separated on May 30, 1979 at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. Lisa suffers from severe complications and today has significant disabilities, but Elisa fares well after surgery and goes on to become an advocate for people with disabilities.

Mark Jeffrey and Matthew Jason Myers are born in Ohio on December 9, 1977. The omphalopagus twin boys are successfully separated on March 4, 1978.

Melissa Ann and Jamie Lynn Shumate, ischiopagus twins, are born in Illinois on December 19, 1977. They are separated on July 23, 1978.

Indonesia's first recorded set of conjoined twins are born to the Minarsih family in 1978.

Thoraco-omphalopagus twin girls named Najet and Mongia are born in the North African country of Tunisia in February of 1978. They are separated on September 26 and Mongia does not survive.

Thoracopagus twin girls with one heart are born in Utah to a family from Idaho on February 2, 1978. They are separated on February 12 in Utah and one twin succumbs.

Christopher George and Timothy Elías Rodríguez are born in Ohio on February 17, 1978. The brothers are conjoined at the heart and although the parents intend to have them separated, both twins die on May 8 before any concrete plans can be made.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born in Taipei, Taiwan on May 13, 1978.

In July of 1978, thoracopagus twins named Brian and Thomas are born in California. They are separated on July 28 and Thomas dies.

Conjoined twin sisters attached at the abdomen are born at Appleton Memorial Hospital in Appleton, Wisconsin, on September 17, 1978 and transferred to Milwaukee Children's Hospital for evaluation.

Sonya and Tonya Bain are born to David and Geraldine Bain of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina on October 3, 1978. The sisters are united from the navel to the sternum and their severely malformed hearts are connected. High-risk separation surgery is performed at Duke University Medical Center on October 12. Sonya succumbs on October 14 and Tonya on October 15.

Thoracopagus twin boys are born to the Mena Dominguez family of the Dominican Republic on October 14, 1978. The brothers share a heart and both die the following day.

Omphalopagus twin girls are born in Seattle to an unnamed mother from Anchorage, Alaska, on October 30, 1978. The sisters, who share a liver, undergo successful separation at Children's Orthopedic Hospital.

Virginia and Jillian Kaube are born in British Columbia on November 28, 1978. The sisters share a heart and only survive for a short while.

Pygopagus twin girls named Josee and France are born in 1979 and undergo separation at the age of 4 months.

A high-risk "sacrifice" separation, in which one twin is intentionally allowed to die so that the other may live, has tragic results on March 2, 1979. Randi Michelle and Brandi Noelle Houston, born on February 20, are separated at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. Despite the sacrifice of one sister, the other succumbs two months after surgery.

In Greece, Ianonoula and Parashei Aliftiria are born joined at the chest and heart in April of 1979. An attempt is made to separate them on July 25, 1979, but sadly neither sister survives.

Mrs. Bandy of Ohio gives birth to omphalopagus twin girls and a non-conjoined triplet boy on August 31, 1979.

Thoracopagus twin boys, sharing a malformed two-chambered heart, are born at Eliot Hospital in Minneapolis on October 25, 1979. They are later transferred to Minneapolis Children's Center, where they survive for only three days.

Thoracopagus twins Mary and Lucy Acosta are born on December 13, 1979. Their parents, Margie and Peter Acosta, hail from Miami and travel to Massachusetts when Mrs. Acosta learns she is having conjoined twins. However, the twins cannot be separated and both pass away one day later.

[Back to Chronological Timeline of Conjoined Twins Timeline]