Two New York boys, who were conjoined twins at the top of their heads, have been successfully separated by a team of surgeons. The parents of the boys took to Facebook to say that they remain positive over the situation of their children despite fearing what will happen in the future.
The 13-month-old twins identified as Jadon and Anias McDonald underwent 16 hours of operation. They are now undergoing more procedures as their skulls are being rebuilt. Their mother, Nicole, took to her Facebook page to say the following: "I should feel so happy...TWO SEPARATE BABIES!!!...and yet I ache with the uncertainty of the future."
In her post, Nicole continued to reveal that Anias could recover a little slower than Jadon since there was a point during the procedure that the doctors contemplated on stopping the whole operation because it was too risky. However, they decided to continue but Anias' blood pressure and heart rate dropped during the operation but has since stabilized, Scary Mommy reported.
It is believed that Anias will not be able to move one or both sides of his body due to the dissected area in the brain. As for Jadon, he was described as a "rock star" during the procedure as he hardly batted an eye. His vitals were also stable. Nicole said that the next few months will be critical in terms of recovery.
Anias and Jadon were born with shared blood vessels and brain tissues. It occurs once in around 10 million births, BBC reported. The doctor who was mentioned in the post of Nicole, Dr. James Goodrich, reportedly performed a similar series of operations to two Syrian twins earlier this year.
The procedure of separating conjoined twins have a lot of risks such as death or long-term brain damage to one or both of the children. However, if they are not operated before they reach the age of two, 80 percent of conjoined twins at the head die of medical complications.
The operation on Jadon and Aniasis is the seventh and the longest separation surgery performed in the world since 1952. A GoFundMe page has been set up for them and the family has raised more than $100,000 to cover for the surgery expenses.
