Local doctors travel to Haiti to take part in surgery to separate conjoined twins
Two La Cañada Flintridge physicians were part of an 18-member U.S. medical team that made history recently by traveling to Haiti to perform separation surgery on 6-month-old conjoined twin girls.
On May 22 the Los Angeles team was joined by 12 medical staff members from the Haitian Hospital Universitaire de Mirebalais (HUM) led by Jean-Louis, director of surgery at HUM. Mirebalais is a poor rural community in the country’s Central Plateau, about 36 miles northeast of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
The leader of the U.S. team was Dr. Henri Ford, MD, MHA, a Haitian-born La Cañada resident who is vice president and surgeon in chief at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and vice dean for medical education, professor and vice chair of Clinical Affairs at Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Making the first incision in the seven-hour separation surgery was Andre Panossian, MD, a craniofacial-trained, board certified plastic surgeon who has devoted his career to pediatric plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery. Panossian has a private practice in Beverly Hills. Panossian, like Ford, calls La Cañada home.
Ford was introduced to the twins’ parents, Manoucheca Ketan and David Bernard, during his many trips to their country after the devastating earthquake in 2010. Since the earthquake, Ford has made more than 25 trips to the country to give medical aid and to teach Haitian doctors and nurses updated medical procedures.
“This was such a gratifying surgery, our team worked together in perfect harmony as an orchestra would,” Ford said. “It was not a light decision to do the surgery in Haiti, making this the first-ever separation of conjoined twins in this country. I knew there was much on the line because if things went wrong there would be catastrophic consequences, not only for the life of these babies but for medical procedures in this country.”
The conjoined twins, Marian Dave-Nouche Bernard and Michelle Dave-Nouche Bernard, were part of a Nov. 24, 2014, triplet Caesarean birth at University Hospital of Mirebalais, Haiti. Their triplet sister, who was born healthy, is named Tamar.
Dr. Ford, who had been consulting with the family’s Haitian doctors, began assembling his Los Angeles-based team in September, two months before the triplets were born.
“I began carefully selecting what became my ‘Dream Team’ from my colleagues at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and USC Keck School of Medicine,” Ford said.
Dr. Andre Panossian, Ford’s La Cañada Flintridge neighbor and professional colleague said, “I was delighted when Dr. Ford asked me to join his team. Previously we had worked together on a difficult abdominal surgery on a child in Haiti and we worked very well together,” Panossian said. “This surgery and being part of this incredible team will always be a memorable highlight in my career.”
Panossian and other doctors made the first incision along the abdominal wall that connected Marian and Michelle at 1:14 p.m. At 2:50 p.m. the girls were surgically separated with resounding applause from the team. For the first time since conception they were separate and individual.
At that moment Dr. Ford formally announced, “We now have two babies, two independent living organisms.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Ford said, “This was a magical moment for me to see these beautiful babies who were born as one who are now two.” He added the girls now have new opportunities in life that before they would never have had.
According to a statement issued Monday by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the mother of the conjoined twins described her reaction when she first laid eyes on her separated daughters. “It was an extraordinary moment,” Ketan, said. “When I first met Dr. Ford, he told me he was confident he could separate my children, but I didn’t know how it would turn out when the day started. Now I am feeling a lot of joy and want to recognize and thank the hospital for everything.”
After a 12-day recovery in a special ICU unit the twins are at home with their parents and triplet sister. During their recovery Ford has kept in touch with the Haiti medical team via telephone and Skype. He said that last Saturday he spoke with the twins’ father by phone and all is going well for the babies.
Ford said the twin girls are receiving ongoing physical therapy to help strengthen neck muscles weakened due to facing in a single direction for such a long time. It is not expected that any more surgeries will need to be done.
Conjoined twins occur in roughly 1 in 200,000 births, and omphalopagus (meaning that they are joined at the abdomen) twins represent about 30% of all conjoined twin births. As triplets, these girls are considered even rarer, occurring 1 in an estimated 1 million births.
The family received free treatment from HUM, which is supported by the Haitian Ministry of Health and Partners in Health, an international health organization. Keck Medicine and CHLA covered the travel expenses of the medical team and donated supplies for the operation.