While some parents of conjoined twins decide to keep their children together due to the risks involved, others opt to have their children undergo separation surgery. Angelina and Angelica Sabuco were born conjoined with their chests and abdomen attached. At the age of two, the conjoined twins were separated in a surgery that lasted ten hours. Dividing the liver the girls shared was the most complex and concerning part of the surgery, but it went smoothly, and the girls now live in separate bodies. In Chile, Maria Paz and Maria Jose underwent separation surgery at 10 months old. The surgery took eight hours and involved over twenty surgeons and anesthesiologists. The twins were conjoined more complexly, at the stomach, pelvis, and thorax. Both twins survived the surgery, but Maria Paz passed away four days later as a result of organ failure.
Rital and Ritag Gaboura were given one-in-ten-million odds of surviving a separation surgery. Joined at the head, their surgery was complex due to the blood vessels they shared and the blood flow that ran through both of their brains. They were separated in September 2011. As the surgery was done at 11 months of age, it was too early to tell if the surgery made any impact on brain activity for the girls. Fiorella and Yurelia Rocha-Arias were considered high-risk when they underwent separation surgery at the age of three. From Costa Rica, the family came to New York for the surgery, where the largest team of doctors in the hospital’s history successfully separated them. The two now live independent lives, running separately, sitting in their own chairs, and living without an attached chest area.
Lakshmi Tatma had a truly unique case. She was one of a set of conjoined twins joined at the pelvis, but her twin never fully formed and was headless, leaving her with the appearance of having four arms and four legs. While some people in her village in India thought this meant she was the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, she underwent surgery at the age of two. The operation took 27 hours, and Lakshi resumed a normal life after the surgery.
Clarence and Carl Aguirre were born in the Philippines in 2002. They were just like any other set of twins—except they were attached at the head. Their mother, Arlene, brought them to America, hopeful that doctors would be able to separate them. For one of the first times ever, doctors opted to separate the Aguirre twins over the course of several smaller surgeries, as opposed to the hours-long surgeries that had been done on conjoined twins up until that point. The first surgery was performed in October 2003, with tissue expanders being implanted in their scalps, with the goal of creating extra skin to be used in the separation. The final surgery took place in August 2004, after their skulls had been slowly moved apart. Carl was left with permanent disabilities and uses a wheelchair to get around. By the age of twelve, he could speak just a few words at a time. Both boys still wear helmets to protect their fragile skulls.