Mackenzie and macy america’s miracle babies earned national headlines when they were still infants despite the fact that they and their sister madeline were born as triplets mackenzie and macy were conjoined sharing a pelvis and a third leg which is extremely unusual set of circumstances which led their biological parents to leave them in the hospital as they couldn’t bear with raising those babies
In september 2006 the couple was separated at children’s hospital los angeles in a mind-boggling intricate 24-hour procedure that necessitated the participation of an army of physicians and support staff and was preceded by months of meticulous planning on seemingly intermittable levels if you count all the nurses radiology technicians and surgeons who work different shifts in the operating room alone
And then the countless other people involved in post-op the total number of people involved was in the neighborhood of 100 says james stein chief medical officer at chla and ford theodore miller murphy chair of surgical oncology he was the primary surgeon who performed the baby separation procedure they required so many members of the chla staff because the choice to separate mackenzie and macy had an impact on what appeared to be
Practically every element of the little children’s physical development in order to safely separate the liver and the intestine where they join together as well as separate the pelvis and still get the pelvis closed into a ring and then close the abdominal wall dr stein says we needed to make sure we could safely separate the liver and the intestine where it joined together as well as separate the pelvis because they were sharing a lot of skin
And muscle we had to shut that as well says the doctor when it came to anesthesia there was the whole piece of having two babies asleep at the same time and then in separate rooms for a period of 24 hours after that it came down to post-operative care which included keeping the babies in the neonatal icu for a period of 24 hours and rehab to get them ready to go home darla who had just recently adopted the
Triplets at the time recalled the daily shuttle back and forth to the hospital from their house in riverside california where they were then living getting to l.a took a lot of driving she recalls there was a lot of paperwork however on the day of the surgery i would describe it as a sense of calm and tranquility i never had a reason to be concerned i just had a feeling that everything would be well since i had a lot of faith in
The group they went above and beyond to ensure that everything was in order and safe which provided us with a great deal of reassurance dr stein attributed the flawless operation to the large number of experts on hand at chla noting that everything from planning through post-op went smoothly in dr stein’s opinion it’s something only a big children’s hospital would be
Able to pull off and i believe we were uniquely positioned with the knowledge in the several sub-specialties general pediatrics neurology orthopedics and plastic surgery to be able to take care of this even prior to the surgery our radiologists had to devise methods for providing the types of visualizations we require in order to make the key decisions we needed to make in order to plan for the surgery
We had a core group of nurses who were completely committed to figuring out how this was going to work it was truly a blanket statement for the entire organization macy and mackenzie have no recollection of the surgery but madeline claims that she has vague memories of visiting her sisters before and after the procedure at children’s hospital los angeles i recall a terrifying elevator with doors that opened in both directions she
Recalled i have a lot of fond memories of dr stein i just remember him as being a genuinely lovely guy who made it a pleasure to engage with and be around him madeline mackenzie and macy three 20-year-old triplets from des moines iowa describe their life on a hobby farm on the outskirts of town as an extra serving of americana with a healthy side of sweet corn and a milkshake filled to the brim
Their days are busy with academics college plans after school activities and part-time employment to supplement their income madeline participates in track and field as well as show choir mackenzie has discovered her vocation through the future farmers of america macy also works at the dairy queen with her best buddy where she spends every spare minute she has i handle orders because no one enjoys
Taking orders and since we’re all busy you’re the one who has to deal with the customers as a result i’ll receive the money from the people and serve out their blizzards while liberty cooks the ice cream macy explains naturally there are tasks to be done after all this is the midwest and a farm and there are animals to care for madeline’s also in charge of the garbage for example macy and her family have two dogs and three cats as well as something
Like 10 horses my pony’s name is nancy midnight nancy and macy’s horse’s name is smoke and maneline’s horse’s name is lulu mackenzie continues providing additional details nancy had swine sickness when we discovered her and my mother as a quirk where she can’t bear the thought of leaving an animal alone when it’s ill then there’s the hanging out with pales and going for car trips in a little
Midwestern town which is always a blast the three of them either drive around or watch movies or they go out to dine together because it’s the only thing to do in town according to macy my driveway looks like a used car lot the girl’s mother darla says amusing herself by pointing out that each of the girls has her own car and a busy schedule the number of autos on the road at any given time is five the overall picture of this existence is
One in which many american teens would know and comprehend right away when complete strangers approach them in the street and begin bombarding them with questions to which they have to provide answers their entire lives i don’t want to be known as the girl who was conjoined to her sister macy expressed displeasure with the title at school we want everyone to realize that we are just regular kids memories that last a lifetime
Inspiration and psychic abilities despite the fact that the recollections of chla are hazy at best the triplets who are now juniors in high school credit the hospital and the individuals who cared for them with providing them with inspiration for what they would do in their lives mackenzie hopes to pursue a career as a lawyer who advocates on behalf of farmers madeline hopes to pursue a career as a nurse anesthesiologist and
Macy who had a more difficult recovery from her surgery than mackenzie plans to pursue a career as an ultrasound technician it was intriguing to see how they determined what was wrong with people when macy was sick for a long period of time and had to have all of my ultrasounds done on a regular basis she added dr stein stated that the family had a long-lasting impact on the children’s
Hospital of los angeles it truly elevated us and internally our ability to work together and take on the most challenging problems he says we continue to talk about this narrative is a key event for us in that it’s one of the most rewarding aspects of working at a facility like children’s hospital to be able to take in the most complex cases available and having both the personnel and infrastructure in place as well as the teamwork approach to see
That it all comes together successfully of course there are still concerns that need to be addressed mackenzie had recently undergone surgery to correct several scoliosis and both of them are back on crutches having gotten rid of the prosthetic legs that they’d been using when they were younger because normal prosthetic legs place a significant amount of weight on the hip bone the girls who had pelvic reconstruction were forced to utilize
Bulkier less mobile devices that weighed 25 pounds then there’s the matter of the questions in macy’s opinion it’s a good thing that it’s not a once in a month occurrence where people come up to her and ask hey i’d like to know what’s going on with you because that would be tedious i’d like it if people ask questions rather than just staring mackenzie says it’s fine with me if people ask me questions she’d probably prefer to chat
About her new role as an officer with the future farmers of america though rather than anything else it’s been often stated that madeline and her team are excellent communicators especially with young children according to madeline my students are in first grade and we took mckenzie into the classroom once to explain what had happened and what the procedure was like can you read your sister’s mind one
Person inquired of her we explained that they were tied together at the pelvis and showed them where the bone was and no they’re not able to read each other’s minds madeline couldn’t help but chuckle as she said this though to be honest there are moments when we consider informing them that we can she said however we don’t want them to misunderstand nevertheless aside from the occasional surgery and the occasional annual
Check-in from a newspaper or magazine these girls are just like any other group of teenagers according to darla they’re simply texting facebooking and whatever and hanging out with their friends they’re just regular kids says the author for us it’s just another day at the office sometimes people may remark things like wow that’s incredible that would be impossible for me but you know what i’ll tell you
Something you might be able to pull it off i find the girls to be well-rounded and they make it quite easy to be apparent to them thanks for reading.