Word: lakebergs
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...right to separate Angela Lakeberg from her sister...
...most people it seemed the sad but certain end to the saga of the Lakeberg Siamese twins. Born joined at the chest with a fused liver and shared heart, they were separated last August at seven weeks of age in a controversial procedure that sacrificed one sister, Amy, so that the other, Angela, might live. The chance of success -- widely reported to be just 1% -- and the projected $1 million bill for the infants' care ignited a national debate over the limits of medical intervention. Now the Lakeberg girls lay reunited in death. A tragedy, surely, but not a surprise...
...Joey Lakeberg made half a dozen trips to Philadelphia to see her red-haired, blue-eyed daughter, but financial constraints and marital problems kept her in Indiana much of the time. On her most recent four-day visit in April, Joey spent time holding Angela, blowing her kisses and trying to teach her to wink. Angela's father Kenny saw his child only twice...
...Muraskas, the Loyola neonatologist who had advised the parents to "let nature take its course," admits that he devised the 1% figure only to put the situation in simple terms and "to try to make the family agree with us." Muraskas, who served as the girls' godfather, says Kenny Lakeberg's drug problems and the nature of the family entered into his thinking: "You have to ask yourself if chain-smoking parents in a trailer park is the most conducive environment for a sick child." O'Neill feels strongly that such considerations have no bearing on the decision to offer...
...question of whether society can afford such astronomical bills for single patients. The Philadelphia team has no doubts that it was worth it. The lessons learned will help other babies survive. And Angela lived long enough to learn to laugh. "I'd do it all over again," says Joey Lakeberg. "There is no price on life...