Three-month-old conjoined twins sharing a liver were successfully separated in a historic surgery.
Conjoined baby twins JamieLynn and AmieLynn Finley were separated Monday at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. It was reported to be an 11-hour surgery procedure performed by six surgeons and 25 medical professionals, according to MSN.
The separation procedure was the first to be executed by the hospital.
Hospital officials confirmed Thursday that JamieLynn and AmieLynn were "doing great" after the operation. Both were in recovery but are in good health, as assured by Cook Children's media relations specialist Kim Brown.
Anatomy and growth support issues
The twins were prematurely born at 34 weeks last October 3, 2022, and have stayed in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) since November. They were conjoined in their abdomen, from their breastbone to their belly button. As a result, they share internal organs, including their liver.
The medical team has decided that it was the right time to do the separation procedure because their anatomy is making it dangerous for both of them, and it will not be able to support their growth, KETK reported.
"While separate, their hearts are exceedingly close together and grow ever closer as the girls age. While the girls are thriving in the NICU, they are not growing at the same rate, partly because they share some blood supply," hospital officials explained before the operation.
Dr. Ben Gbulie from Posh Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Mansfield, discussed the separation procedure with the family and suggested doing the surgery at Cook's Children. The hospital can provide them the opportunity for long-term follow-up wherein they can get the same quality care and is within their address.
Hoping for normal, healthy lives in the future
The medical director of pediatric surgery at Cook Children, Dr. Jose Iglesias, informed the public that the twins are "going to have a bit of a ramp up from the recovery" but reassures everyone that JamieLynn and AmieLynn are going to get better.
Hospital officials said that their main concerns that need to be monitored for weeks while the twins are in recovery are the possible bleeding and infections due to the high-risk surgery and liver dissection.
But apart from that, Dr. Iglesias expressed high hopes for their excellent recovery and being able to lead "very close to normal if not completely normal" healthy lives in the future.
According to The Hill, the parents of the twins, James Finley and Amanda Arciniega, were immediately able to visit their daughters an hour after the procedure, and they were already in separate beds.
They needed to divide their attention between the two for the first time, yet they could not ask for anything more.
When asked if she had always wanted twins, Arciniega replied no. She further said that she never thought "in a million years" that she would have twins, much more, conjoined twins.
