Conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ Erin and Abby, who were 10 months old, were successfully split apart on June 6, 2017, by doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Parents About 11 weeks into Heather and Riley Delaney’s pregnancy, they discovered that Heather was having conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ. On July 24, 2016, Abby and Erin Delaney were delivered in CHOP’s Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit after being under the hospital’s Center for Fetal Diagnosis & Treatment’s ᴄʟᴏsᴇ observation.
The least frequent form of conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ, craniopagus, caused the Delaney ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ to be linked at the top of their heads. The girls were the first craniopagus pair and the 23rd set of conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ to be split at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ must undergo extensive surgery to be separated. The girls underwent a number of surgeries over the course of their first 10 months, including the implantation of expanders to stretch their skin.
Conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ must undergo a difficult surgery and a protracted, challenging recuperation. The separation surgery, which lasted about 11 hours, was co-led by neurosurgeon Gregory Heuer, MD, PhD, and plastic surgeon Jesse Taylor, MD, and involved a multidisciplinary team of about 30 people, including doctors, nurses, and other medical staff from neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and anesthesiology.
Formerly conjoined ᴛᴡɪɴꜱ need urgent, specialized care after separation. The surgeons, nutritionists, developmental pediatricians, and other specialists meticulously monitored the separated Nᴇᴡʙᴏʀɴꜱ as they recovered from surgery to make sure they received the finest medical care possible to help them flourish and grow.
Additionally, a group of speech, occupational, and physical therapists provided them with intense therapy. The girls will require additional procedures over the following few years to fill in ᴍɪssɪɴɢ skull bone and lessen scarring.
https://youtu.be/jEknKRp98bk
Video resource: Factsomatic
