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“Because they shared a lot of skin and muscle, we had to get that closed as well. “It was making sure we could safely separate the liver and the intestine where it joined together and separate the pelvis and still get the pelvis closed into a ring and then close the abdominal wall,” Dr.
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They needed so many of the CHLA staff because the decision to separate Mackenzie and Macey affected seemingly almost every aspect of the tiny children’s bodies. He was the lead doctor on the babies’ separation surgery. portion-and then the countless other people involved in post-op,” says James Stein, Chief Medical Officer at CHLA, and Ford Theodore Miller Murphy Chair of Surgical Oncology. “It was in the vicinity of 100 people once you count the various shifts of nurses, radiology technicians, surgeons-just for the O.R. In September 2003, the pair were separated at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in a bogglingly complex, 24-hour surgery that required an army of specialists and support staff and that followed intense planning at seemingly endless levels. Though they and Madeline were born as triplets, Mackenzie and Macey were conjoined, sharing a pelvis and a third leg-a set of circumstances that is incredibly rare. Mackenzie and Macey made national news as infants. “At school, we want everybody to know us as normal kids.” America’s miracle babies “I don’t really like to be known as the girl that was conjoined to her sister,” Macey said. “There are five automobiles at any given time.”Īll in all, it’s a life that many American teenagers would recognize and understand immediately-except when strangers come up to them in public and begin peppering them with questions they’ve had to answer their entire lives. “My driveway looks like a used car lot,” the girls’ mother, Darla, says, laughing and noting that each of her daughters has her own car and hectic schedule. “We either drive around or watch movies, or we usually go eat together, because it’s the only thing to do in town,” Macey says. “Nancy had a pig disease when we found her, and my mom has a thing where if she sees a sick animal she can’t leave it alone.”Īnd, of course, there’s the hanging out with the friends and going out for rides in cars in a small Midwestern town. “My pony is Nancy-Midnight Nancy-and Macey’s horse is Smoke and Madeline’s is Lulu,” Mackenzie adds, going into more detail. “We have two dogs, three cats and, like, 10 horses,” Macey says. (Madeline’s in charge of the trash, too.) Naturally, there are chores-this is the Midwest and a farm, after all, and there are animals to tend to. So I’ll take the people’s money and hand out their Blizzards, and Liberty makes the ice cream,” says Macey. “I take the orders because nobody likes to take orders, because if we’re busy you’re the person who has to deal with people.
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And Macey spends every spare hour she can working the counter at the Dairy Queen with her best friend.
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Mackenzie has found her calling via Future Farmers of America. Madeline runs track and is in show choir. Their days are filled with schoolwork, planning for college and afterschool activities and jobs. Life on a hobby farm in the suburban outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa, for 17-year-old triplets Madeline, Mackenzie and Macey is pretty much like an extra helping of Americana with a healthy side of sweet corn and a milkshake filled to the brim. They made national news when separated as babies, but now these once-conjoined twins live normal lives in the Midwest.