Parents of Conjoined Twins Speak Out
L O N D O N, Dec. 7 -- The parents of conjoined twins separated lastmonth during a 20-hour operation in which the weaker infant diedpraised their surviving daughter as a “fighter” — and said bothchildren would always be part of their family.
Michaelangelo and Rina Attard spoke publicly for the first timeon Thursday after a judge partially lifted a ban on identifyingthem.
The two girls — known publicly as Jodie and Mary — were bornAug. 8 with fused spines that left them joined at the abdomen.Doctors said both would die without the surgery but that separationwould kill Mary, who was kept alive by Jodie’s heart and lungs.
Religious Argument
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.
“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.
Coming to Terms
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.
The Attards, who came to Britain for the birth of theirdaughters, said they hoped one day to return home with Jodie.
“Hopefully one day we will all go back together, taking Jodieback with us — and Mary, because she is part of our family and willbe close to us all the time,” Michaelangelo Attard said. “Westill love them the same, they are both our daughters.”
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