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Behind the headlines: The separation of conjoined twins at MGH

12/06/17     Boston, MA

The Boston chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists is back in business, and we’re inviting you to a panel discussion and reception with key members of the team that separated 22-month-old conjoined twins at Massachusetts General Hospital, knowing one would almost certainly die. The case raised a host of surgical and ethical challenges that Dr. Allan M. Goldstein, surgeon-in-chief at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Dr. Brian M. Cummings, chair of the hospital’s Pediatric Ethics Committee, and Dr. Oscar J. Benavidez, chief of pediatric/congenital cardiology, will discuss.

Before the operation, Dr. Cummings recently wrote, the surgical team “talked through whether separation was technically possible. Were there enough organs to ‘make’ two people from one? What would happen afterward? The evaluation … concluded that separation was physically possible but Twin A would not survive afterwards.

“Even though we could do the separation, should we do it?”

Please join us for what’s sure to be a riveting conversation, as well as a chance to mingle with your journalist colleagues and celebrate the coming holidays.

WHEN: Wednesday, Dec. 6, 6-8 p.m.; appetizers and drinks at 6, followed by the program at6:45.

WHERE: New offices of The Boston Globe and Stat, 53 State St., Boston (corner of State and Congress; please use the Congress Street entrance)

Required RSVP: If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Alex Spinelli, Alexander.Spinelli@statnews.com, with your name and affiliation.