Two girls who were born as conjoined at the head twins have been separated thanks to a miracle surgery.
The sisters were born on August 2020 at the Soroka Medical Centre in Be’er Sheva in Israel and, according to The Times of Israel, the doctors had been preparing for the separation surgery before they were delivered.
And even though such an operation carries huge risks, after a 12-hour “life or death” procedure, the babies were able to see each other for the very first time.
This also happens to be the first time doctors in Israel have carried out such an operation.
“When the nurses brought the babies together, newly separated, they looked at each other, made noises, and gently touched each other — it was beautiful. You could see the communication between them, and it was just so special,” Dr. Isaac Lazar said.
Dr. Lazar, who is also the director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Soroka University Medical Centre, went on to explain:
“Any wrong decision could have been the difference between life and death… it was so delicate, as the surgery was performed between major blood vessels in the babies’ heads, We all knew that any bleed could have catastrophic consequences.”
The surgery involved scalp grafts and cranial reconstruction, and in order to prepare for it, the team practiced on high-end 3D virtual reality models of the girls.
“It was complicated beyond anything one could imagine. The babies were connected by the back of their heads in an area where there was no skin and no skull. We had to take action to make them grow more skin,” Lazar said.
To achieve the growth of skin, inflatable silicone bags were installed into adjacent parts of their heads.
“Every few days, sterile water was injected into the bags, increasing their volume. This stretched the skin slowly,” Dr. Lazar explained
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For the first months of their new lives, the girls will be physically affected, but “with the right rehabilitation for their physical and cognitive development, we expect them to catch up with their milestones”, Dr. Lazar said.
