Conjoined twins separated after an 11-hour surgery
Doctors at Cooks Children’s Medical Center successfully separated sisters Amielynn Rose and Jamielynn Rae Finley during a complex 11-hour procedure that marked a surgical first for the Fort Worth pediatric hospital.
The girls were born prematurely on Oct. 3 to Fort Worth parents Amanda Arciniega and James Finley at 34 weeks, weighing 4 pounds, 7.8 ounces at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.
The surgery was carried out last week by a 25-person medical team. The sisters shared a liver and were joined at the lower half of the breastbone to their belly buttons.
While still early, both Amie-lynn and Jamielynn are “recovering well,” the medical center said in a news release, describing what they called a “historic surgery.”
Conjoined twins are rare; it’s estimated that they occur in 1 in every 200,000 live births. The twins have also defied the odds: only five to eight conjoined twins worldwide survive the first few days after birth.
Omphalopagus twins, sharing part of the gastrointestinal system and abdominal wall, have the best chances of survival following a successful separation, according to a 2016 study by the National Institutes of Health.
Nearly 10 percent of babies born conjoined are omphalopagus twins, the agency said.
There were six surgeons involved in the medical team that separated the twins, including Jose L. Iglesias, the medical director of Cook Children’s Medical Center and lead surgeon for the twins’ surgery.
“The separation surgery will give Amielynn and Jamielynn better opportunities to improve their health and development, and to grow as the unique, individual little girls that they have been since birth, regardless of their physical connection as conjoined twins,” Iglesias said in the news release.
In the coming weeks and months, Amielynn and Jamielynn will continue to receive care from Cook Children’s Medical Center neonatology and NICU teams, focusing on their healing and continued growth and development.