Mother describes daughters born conjoined at the head and later separated

At a 10-week ultrasound in 2019, a mother living in California was told she was carrying conjoined twins. Specialists diagnosed the fetuses as craniopagus twins, conjoined at the head, a condition she was told occurs in about one in every 2.5 million live births.

The sonographer initially left the room and a doctor reacted, "Oh my goodness", the mother recalled. English is her second language and she did not immediately understand the diagnosis; she later phoned her husband, Anatoliy, who returned home and told her, "These are our children and we love them already." An MRI four months later indicated a "decent chance" the girls could be separated in the future.

More than 200 medical staff prepared for the delivery, with the teams split as "team orange" and "team purple", each including neurologists, heart specialists and plastic surgeons. After the girls were born they were taken to intensive care; the mother named them Abigail and Micaela and described improvising at home and treasuring each milestone.

When the girls were 10 months old they underwent a 24-hour separation operation in October 2020 involving about 30 medics; because of Covid-19 the parents received text updates and were not allowed to wait at the hospital. The operation was reported as successful, and the mother says the now-six-year-olds are thriving: "Today they are here, and that is enough for me", she told the Guardian.

Key Topics

Health, Craniopagus Twins, Separation Operation, Mri Scan, California