Separated 1)Guatamalan Twins Go Home

Broadcast: Jan 14, 2003

 

Twins girls who were born joined at the head have gone home to Guatemala, five months after surgery to separate them. The ²⁾prognosis for both is good.

Wearing ^3）tiaras over their bandages, the 17-month-old sisters left the children's hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles. Medical workers saw them off Monday, in a farewell one nurse called "bittersweet."

"We know that this is best for them and they need to be back in their hometown, but we've grown really attached to them and it's going to be hard for us," she said

The girls, known as the two Marias, were born fused at the skull¹ with their faces ^4）tilted in opposite directions. They were brought to Los Angeles with help from a charity called Healing the Children.

Doctors describe the 23-hour procedure to separate the girls as one of the most difficult in the hospital's history. On several occasions, one of the girls was near death.

An anonymous³ donor⁴ contributed $450,000 toward the $2 million cost of their medical care. UCLA physicians donated their services.

Dr. Henry Kawamoto, a Japanese of American says the team that cared for the twins included physicians from India, Argentina and Israel.

"That shows we can do and do together, as the twins go back to Guatemala, we're really exporting some of the best of American technology, American goodwill⁵, and hopefully a message that says, people of the world, we can work together to bring a lot of joy," he said.

At home, the girls will undergo physical therapy and further operations, including plastic surgery to allow them to grow full heads of hair.

Mike O'Sullivan Los Angeles.

 

1)    Guatamalan 危地马拉(拉丁美洲)

2)    prognosis [prC^5nEusis]n.[医] 预后，预测

3)    tiara [ti5B:rE]n. 冠状头饰

4)    tilt² [tilt]v.(使)倾斜, (使)翘起

 

1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

3 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

4 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

5 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。