Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406170090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Short
Angela never left the hospital and doctors never managed to wean her from a ventilator. Her lung problems worsened dramatically in the 24 hours before she died at 1 a.m.
No relatives were there when she died, said Beatrice Parker, spokeswoman for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
``Angela Lakeberg was a sweet little girl,'' said Dr. Russell C. Raphaely, the hospital's director of critical care. ``The staff was quite fond of her and we were all pulling for her.''
Angela's father, Kenneth Lakeberg, has had a series of legal problems. Facing an auto theft charge, he was transferred Thursday from a drug rehabilitation center to the Jasper County Jail in northwestern Indiana where the family lives. His wife, Reitha, was with her parents near Roselawn, Ind.
Angela and Amy Lakeberg were born joined at the chest on June 29, 1993, at a hospital near Chicago. They shared a deformed heart and fused liver.
Doctors at the Illinois hospital opposed separation, saying there was no reason to put the twins through the ordeal when there was little chance either would survive. Without surgery, both probably would have died in a few months, doctors said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB