Second of formerly conjoined twins discharged
Hope Elizabeth Richards, the second of the formerly conjoined twin girls separated in a seven-hour surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital in January, was discharged Wednesday after 482 days.
The discharge from the Houston hospital followed that of her sister, Anna Grace, by nearly eight weeks. Hope left with a breathing tube inserted in her windpipe through a surgically made hole.
“This is the moment it all feels real,” Jill Richards said in a statement that also thanked the Texas Children’s team that provided the care. “We are so excited for Hope to join Anna and her brothers at home.”
The Richards family will be returning to their North Texas home at some point but do not yet have a timetable, a Texas Children’s spokeswoman said.
The family declined further comment. They would not authorize the release of any information about what lengthened Anna’s recovery time.
The two girls were born Dec. 29, 2016 at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women — weighing a combined 9 pounds, 12 ounces — months after their parents first learned they were conjoined during a routine ultrasound in
North Texas. They were four weeks premature.
Texas Children’s doctors on Jan. 13, 2018 separated the two girls, who shared their chest wall, lining of the heart, diaphragm and liver.
Dr. Larry Hollier, Texas Children’s surgeon-in-chief and one of the doctors involved in the procedure, said in February that the surgery turned out to be easier than doctors anticipated. In imaging, the hearts appeared to share a common wall, but when the surgeons opened the chest, there was enough space for the two hearts to separate.
The separation surgery was only the second in Houston in more than 20 years. The previous one was nearly three years ago, when a team of more than 40 Texas Children’s clinicians from seven specialties separated 10-month-olds Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata during a marathon 26-hour surgery.