Conjoined twins separated at Barcelona hospital to grow up with 'perfect quality of life'

Conjoined twins recently separated in Barcelona's Sant Joan de Déu hospital will be discharged at the beginning of next week after their successful operation.

The medical team announced on Friday that the Mauritanian babies, Khadija and Cherive, were both healthy. Doctors believe that the siblings will be able to grow independently and autonomously, "with a perfect quality of life."

The Mauritian twins were born on October 8 in their home country, conjoined at the top of the abdomen and with a single umbilical cord.

As part of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital's solidarity program, the Mauritanian authorities contacted the Catalan medical center to assess whether they could be operated on and separated.

After receiving the approval of the doctors, the girls were brought to the country on October 25 in a Spanish Air Force plane.

It was the first time that Hospital Sant Joan de Déu had separated Siamese twins, and medical professionals involved in the surgery highlighted the "high complexity" of the process which needed the simultaneous work of several different medical teams. 

The head of surgery at Sant Joan de Déu, Dr Xavier Tarrado, explained in a press conference that the pair were conjoined by their livers, but that both organs had "normal and independent" functionality.

"This brought peace of mind to the medical team," Tarrado said. "It was only necessary to deal with some bleeding and leakage of bile", he said.

The medical team prepared the operation by creating a virtual and printed simulation of the conjoined organs. "It was an exceptional situation for our center and it was necessary to guarantee maximum safety," Tarrado said.

Thanks to the simulated organ, 50 different items were identified that the medical team should take into account on the day of separation.