Pennsylvania Parents To Keep Twins Conjoined

[April 26, 2014]  NEW YORK (Reuters) — A Pennsylvania couple has decided not to split their newborn conjoined twins, local news outlets said, citing the high risk of surgery for the boys.

Garrett and Andrew Stancombe were born healthy two weeks ago conjoined at the torso and sharing a heart and liver, the twins' mother Michelle Van Horne told Pittsburgh-CBS affiliate KDKA, and were released from their hospital four days later.

Van Horne and her husband Kody Stancombe decided against separating the twins due to the serious risks of surgery, Van Horne said to KDKA, but the boys' current condition is no guarantee of a long life.

"They could be with us here now, and in the next second be gone. A month down the road they could be gone. They could turn into teenagers," Van Horne told the CBS-affiliate. "We don't know and that's the difficulty."

Last Wednesday, another set of conjoined twins who were separated last August, were released from their Dallas, Texas hospital to a local inpatient rehabilitation center. Doctors think those boys could join their family at home as early as this summer.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner; editing by Michael Perry)

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