Twins who were born conjoined celebrate their first birthday after being separated in the US.

Two conjoined twin brothers have celebrated their first birthday after they were successfully separated in a recent surgery in the US. Amari and Javar Ruffin, whose family lives in Philadelphia, They were born by cesarean section in September 2023. The brothers shared part of the sternum, diaphragm, abdominal wall and liver. In total, They weighed 2.7 kilos on the whole.

A surgical team from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, with more than two dozen specialists among surgeons, anesthetists, radiologists, nurses and many others, they operated for eight hours on August 21, 2024 to separate them. Their abdomens were closed and reconstructed using layers of mesh and plastic surgery techniques.

“Separate conjoined twins always a challengebecause each pair of twins is different,” Holly Hedrick, a pediatric general and fetal surgeon, explains in a statement. “We spend hours rehearsing the development of the operation before the big day, including practicing how to transfer each baby to its own bed.

At home after a year in the hospital

The children went home on Tuesday, after a year in the hospitalto be with his parents, Tim and Shaneka, and his siblings, Kaylum and Anora. “Seeing them each in their bed was an indescribable feeling,” said the mother. “It’s like we started a new journey as a family of six members. We are very grateful [al hospital] for helping us make this day possible and allowing us to begin this next chapter.”

The family found out that the twins were conjoined in one routine ultrasound at 12 weeks pregnant. Shaneka said she was advised to terminate the pregnancy. They asked for a second opinion and the hospital told them that, although it was a rare disease, conjoined twins could break up successfully.

Cases of conjoined twins occur, approximately, once every 35,000-80,000 births. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the few in the US with experience in this type of operation.