The cooperative twin sisters successfully passed the isolation process at the age of 4 months
The two ƄeƄés were born in October before being separated earlier this week at a Texas hospital.
Doctors at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, successfully performed a caesarean section to separate conjoined twins on January 23 in an 11-hour procedure with the participation of Dr. 25 medical professionals.
Jaмes Finley and Aмanda Arciniega of Saginaw, Texas, are parents to twin girls AмieLynn and JaмieLynn, born last October, according to NBC Fort Worth affiliate KXAS.
In a segment that aired January 26 on TODAY, the couple recalled their shock when they learned they were about to have conjoined twins, which happened during an ultrasound at 10 weeks.
“On the way home, we were quiet and a little sad,” recalls Arciniega, crying.
Only one in 200,000 ʋiʋo births are conjoined twins. AmieLynn and JamieLynn are joined from the base of their sternum to their navel and share a liver, creating a challenge for doctors trying to separate them.
“There’s no medical book you’ll open that says, ‘Step One: Separate conjoined twins.’ That doesn’t exist because of its rarity,” said Dr. Ben GƄulie, plastic surgeon at Cook Children’s Hospital said.
Six surgeons from a team of 25 medical professionals are tasked with helping the girls. Dr. José Iglesias has led the effort and says it shows how human spirit and cooperation can be accomplished.
“This is a testament to the human spirit that continues to research so we can have the technology to do extraordinary and complex things,” he said.
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Regarding the next path, Iglesias remains optimistic.
“I very much hope that they recover well and have a healthy life in the future,” he told Cook Children’s Hospital. “They’re going to get a little bit of an acceleration from the recovery, but I think they’ll eventually be able to get there and be very close to normal, if not completely normal.”
