Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-07-21
IDENTICAL TWINS
Small Hearts Face Surgery
BY WILLIAM GRIGG
Star Staff Writer

BY WILLIAM GRIGG
Star Staff Writer
Delphine and Daphne Green,
6, have twin smiles and twin
hearts, with identical defects
in those hearts.
Twin open-heart operations
will be performed in Baltimore
this week. Their doctors believe
this will be the first double
operation Of its type for this
condition in identical twins.
Open heart surgery - in
which machinery is used to
pump and renew the blood so
that the heart can be slowed
or stopped-is only 4 or 5 years
older than the children.
The little girls, born at Dis
trict General Hospital, are now
at University Hospital, Balti-
more, in preparation for the
operations. They moved to
Baltimore with their mother.
Mrs. Mable Gray, about a year
ago.
Double Procedure
A physician there told The
Star yesterday that he has
searched medical literature but
found no other double pro-
cedure quite like the one
planned. Still, he said, I'VE
have every hope that both chill
dren will come through the
operation in good shape"
The girls have ventricular
septal defects. This means that
each has a hole in what should
be the thick, unbroken wall be-
tween the two lower chambers
of her heart. (See diagram.C
In their cases, these holes
are big enough to permit blood
that should carry its oxygen
to the body to run back into
the right lower chamber fright
ventricle).
From the right ventricle, this
blood is pumped to the lungs
from where 1t just had come.
Deficient Supply
AS q result, not enough oxy-
gen-carrying blood is sent out
to the body. Thus, the child
may fail to grow with normal
speed and may tire easily. /
OF the two girls, Daphne is
shorter than Delphine, the de-
feet apparently having more Of
an immediate effect on her
than on her sister.
But physicians have salts
fled themselves that the girls
are not only twins but identi-
cal twins. That means that Just
after conception the fertilized
egg split into idential parts
that developed separately into
two children.
This is Of particular interest
to the physicians because little
is known about heart defects
caused by genetic or inherited
factors.
According to the American
Heart Association, heredity as
a cause Of heart defects is
under current study by various
scientists but it is rare for
more than one child in a family
to have q congenital heart de-
feet.
Instead Of blaming heredity,
scientists have explained many
heart defects as being caused
by German measles in the
mother or by other disease,
drugs or accidents that may
distrub the growth Of the un-
born child's heart.
A heart specialist at the
hospital said yesterday that
these causes during pregnancy
would probably not have af-
fected both twins in the same
way. Thus, he said, he was in
clined to believe that a genetic
defect existed in the fortified
egg before it split.
The University Hospital is as
ISOLATED with the University
of Maryland. DR.. r. Adams
Cowley, head of the depart
ment of thoracic surgey, is ex- !
pected to perform the opera
tons Tuesday and Thursday.
A complicated defect such as
the twins requires opening
their Stilled hearts so that the
surgeon can sew tissue together
to close the holes. This open