Parents Tell Story of Conjoined Twins

Dec. 7 -- The hand belongs to Jodie, a conjoined twin who is alive only because the closest person in her life is dead.

It’s a tiny gesture from a hand so small that it barely wraps around her father’s finger. But it’s a symbol of hope for a family that was ordered to let Jodie’s twin sister, Mary, die.

Jodie and Mary were separated during a 20-hour operation in Britain last month in which Mary, the weaker of the two, died.

Today, their parents spoke publicly for the first time. They called Jodie a fighter, who was determined to beat the odds. Their mourning for Mary runs deep.

Michaelangelo and Rina Attard spoke in an interview to be broadcast today, after a judge partiallylifted a ban on identifying them.

The two girls — known publicly as Jodie and Mary — were bornAug. 8 with fused spines that left them joined at the abdomen.

Court Battle

Doctors said both would die without the surgery but that separationwould kill Mary, who was kept alive by Jodie’s heart and lungs.

Their parents, Roman Catholics from the Maltese island of Gozo,opposed the separation on religious grounds. Doctors went to courtto win the right to separate them.

Rina Attard said Jodie, who now feeds from a bottle and breatheswithout a ventilator, was making strong progress following the Nov.7 operation at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

“She might notice that something has been separated from her soshe’s holding our hands much, much stronger,” Attard, 29, toldGranada Television’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald program,according to a transcript of the show released before its airingthis evening.

“She makes sounds like she is talking with us and she smiles atpeople and us. It makes us very encouraged for the future. She’sgoing to be a real fighter,” she said.

Dealing With The Past

Michaelangelo Attard, 44, said he was still coming to terms withMary’s death. “Even though we were prepared, it was a shock ... Wedidn’t accept that it was going to happen,” he said.