VCU news

By Malorie Burkett

The Learning Channel will air a one-hour documentary this weekend on formerly conjoined twins Maria and Teresa Tapia of the Dominican Republic and their journey leading up to separation surgery by doctors at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The program, titled “Conjoined Twins: Separation Anxiety,” will air Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. EST on TLC and will repeat at midnight Jan. 23.

The twins were surgically separated in November during a complex 20-hour procedure led by David Lanning, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the VCU Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief, Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Lanning collaborated with a team that was made up of about 45 physicians and pediatric subspecialists.

Maria and Teresa, along with their mother and aunt, returned in December to the Dominican Republic where they were reunited with their father and older brothers.