Faith, Hope together in both life and death

By FRANCESCA MOLD and MARTIN JOHNSTON

Denise Emberson cradled her Siamese twin daughters Faith and Hope in her arms yesterday morning as together they gave up their brief fight for life.

The twins, who were joined at the chest and abdomen and shared a liver and a heart, died of "severe heart abnormalities" at National Women's Hospital.

They will be buried in their parents' hometown of Wairoa on Monday - just a week after they were born by caesarean section, weighing in total just 4kg.

Mrs Emberson, her husband, Bruce, and their two daughters, Sandy, aged 11, and Kristy-Jane, 9, were with the babies when they began having difficulty breathing about 5.45 am. They died peacefully 10 minutes later.

The Herald understands that Faith and Hope had become "distressed" the night before and were given oxygen.

Doctors had warned the Embersons that the twins were unlikely to live and there was little hope they could ever be separated successfully, but the family had been hoping for a miracle.

Edward Kiely, the senior British surgeon in the 1995 operation to separate Siamese twins Hussein and Hassan Mammar, said before the girls' deaths that the survival outlook was dismal for Siamese twins whose hearts were "stuck together inextricably."

"There are lesser degrees of cardiac union and I think there may be one or two survivors worldwide," he said, commenting on the success of separation operations.

Hussein and Hassan were joined from the breastbone to the navel, their hearts and liver as one. Hassan died, as the doctors had said he would, to allow his brother to live. Hussein survived the operation, only to die a month later from cot death.

Transplants of a new heart in cases of Siamese twins sharing a single heart were theoretically possible, Mr Kiely said, but heart transplants had a poor record in babies, even without the added complications of Siamese twins.

The Herald was unable to contact the Embersons yesterday.

They have refused to speak to media after giving exclusive rights to TV3's 20/20 programme, which will air their story tomorrow night.

TV3 said yesterday that it had not paid the Embersons for their story. The only money to have changed hands was for expenses and the proceeds of an appeal.

Auckland Healthcare issued a statement on behalf of the Embersons and 20/20 announcing the twins' deaths.

A spokeswoman for Auckland Healthcare, Brenda Saunders, said the family had no further comment.

Doctors involved in the case had been banned by Ms Saunders from discussing the family or commenting on Siamese twins in general with media other than TV3.