Conjoined twin girls who shared spine, bladder, uterus and intestines separated

Eleven-month-old conjoined twin girls Bellanie and Ballanie ,from the Dominican Republic, who shared spine, bladder, uterus and intestines were separated after a 22-hour procedure at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and the surgery  was a success, doctors said in a press conference Tuesday.
The medical teams which involved numerous doctors and nurses, including neurosurgeons, orthopedic, urological, gastrointestinal, pediatric, and plastic surgeons performed multiple practice sessions using 3-D models of the little girls’ lower body constructed from CAT scans and MRIs, before the intervention.
The girls are recovering. Should no complications emerge, the girls will be back home in just a few months. Conjoined twins occur in approximately one in 200,000 births, but twins joined at the hip  – called pygopagus – are extremely rare. The calculated chance of death during separation is calculated at 23 percent. The girls’ parents, Marino Abel Camacho and Laurilin Celadilla Marte, did not know they were conjoined prior to birth.
 “Our family does not know how we can pay for what we’ve been given but we ask that God bless every one of you,” they said.

Culled from roundnews.com