SIAMESE TWINS SEPARATED - ONE SURVIVES.

Byline: Matthew Fordahl Associated Press

The weaker of two Siamese twins died Saturday, her heart too weak to pump blood after surgeons separated her from her infant sister in an extraordinary operation that propelled the medical team on an emotional roller coaster.

Sarahi Morales died at 5:05 p.m. of cardiac arrest, about 35 minutes after she was taken out of the operating room. Her sister, Sarah, was in stable condition and expected to survive.

"This is a bittersweet victory because I was hopeful we could have both babies survive," said Dr. John Lamberti, a heart specialist who participated in the operation.

"Everybody tried real hard," he said. "It's exciting to be on the frontiers of medicine and do it well. Sometimes the decks are stacked."

Doctors had been cautiously optimistic when Sarahi's heart rate tripled during the surgery. They had expected her circulation to improve, but it never did.

"It's a roller coaster. It's a moment-to-moment situation," said Dr. Michael Segall, director of neonatology at Children's Hospital San Diego.

Moments after doctors wrapped up the complicated, six-hour surgery, dozens of nurses and technicians who participated cheered in the hallways outside Operating Room No. 5.

But they quickly disappeared, and a scheduled news conference was delayed as doctors unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate Sarahi with her parents and sister only eight feet away.

When doctors and staff finally re-emerged, they looked glum but did not say Sarahi had died until a reporter asked them. They said the surgery still was successful because one of the sisters survived.

"I was very happy the two made it out of the operating room. I had a feeling they weren't," said Dave Skillin, a cardiovascular technician. "These things do happen."

The parents - Miguel Morales and his wife, Maria Espinoza - were told the babies survived the operation, but that Sarahi was gravely ill. They were said to be devastated by the news.

"At the moment the loss is clearly overwhelming," said Blair Sadler, president and chief executive officer of Children's Hospital.

Counselors and social workers were made available to the parents, doctors said.

The actual separation came more than three hours after the risky surgery began at Children's Hospital San Diego.

Doctors operated on a specially designed table that disconnected when the infant girls were separated. The surgery began at 10:30 a.m. and finished about 4:30 p.m.

To separate the twins, doctors cut three blood vessels that run through the band of skin connecting them and disconnected their joined livers.

Sarah and Sarahi were born Jan. 12.