Doctors race to separate Siamese twins joined at the heart
Anna and Hope are two very special girls. Born conjoined, they shared heart vessels, liver and diaphragm.
Thanks to the rare and complex surgery, they will now be able to live apart.
At just two years old, the girls have finally been separated by doctors in the Texas Children's hospital. for the first time in their lives, the girls are in separate beds.
Born at 35 weeks via C-section on the 29th of December 29, 2016, Anna and Hope weighed a combined 9 pounds, 12 ounces. A large blood vessel connected both of their hearts as well as sharing a chest wall and the lining of their hearts.
Mother Jill and father Michael found out that the twins were conjoined during an ultrasound. They then relocated to Houston, Texas, in order to be closer to the hospital.
The girls have remained in the hospital their whole lives, where they were carefully monitored by specialist NICU teams.
Since birth, doctors have been working on a way to separate the girls.
Doctors first had to figure out if it would even be possible to eventually separate them. Also they had to calculate the risks to ensure that both would walk away functional and happy. It took months of research, planning and 3-D imaging before the operation could be undertaken.
Preparing for the large operation the girls firstly had a smaller surgery where tissue extenders were implanted to make sure that there would be enough skin to cover their chests after separation.
"We've thought about and prayed for this day for almost two years," Jill said in the statement from the hospital.
The surgery, which took over 7 hours and 75 doctors, surgeons and nurses to complete was a success.
"The success of this incredibly complex surgery was the result of our dedicated team members' hard work throughout the last year," Dr. Larry Hollier, surgeon-in-chief said in the statement. "Through simulations and countless planning meetings, we were able to prepare for situations that could arise during the separation. We are thrilled with the outcome and look forward to continuing to care for Anna and Hope as they recover."
The girls have begun to recover and move around. "It's an indescribable feeling to look at our girls in two separate beds," Jill said. "We couldn't be more thankful to the entire team at Texas Children's for making this dream come true."
"We are so very blessed and thankful. We are truly grateful for God's gifts and the medical staff at Texas Children's Hospital," the family wrote on their Go Fund Me page.
"The girls are both doing well given the extent of the surgery they underwent. Anna is a little ahead of Hope and is off the ventilator. She is very active and vocal … Hope still remains on the vent, but she is making great progress. She may continue to need extra breathing support for a while. So much was changed in her little chest in those 7 hours of surgery."