Craniopagus conjoined twins were successfully separated early Friday in a complicated surgery lasting more than 16 hours at Children's Hospital at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
The surgery on Jadon and Anias McDonald, who are 13 months old, started Thursday and went through the night as physicians carefully separated their heads and then reconstructed their skulls, according to CNN.
CNN wrote that doctors completed Jadon's surgery at 7:40 a.m., and he was taken to pediatric intensive care while Anias remained in surgery past 8 a.m. Friday.
"Anias' blood pressure and heart rate dropped with each cut of the dura (the covering of the brain)," wrote Nicole McDonald, the boys' mother, on Facebook. She had been waiting for the results with her husband Christian. "These drops have stabilized since being fully separated but he is on medication to keep this stable.
"The overall atmosphere was one of celebration mixed with uncertainty. Anias really got rocked in this procedure. It really now is up to God in terms of how he recovers," she continued. "They are predicting that at first he may not be able to move one or both sides of his body, based on the area of brain that was dissected (an area of his right parietal lobe — likely the motor cortex — the area that controls movement)."
McDonald said Jadon came out of the surgery maintaining his vital signs, according to her Facebook post.
"It's a bit surreal to sit here and type this. …I should feel so happy...TWO SEPARATE BABIES!!!...and yet I ache with the uncertainty of the future. I didn't cry until the surgeon's left the room," she wrote. "… The next few months will be critical in terms of recovery and we will not know for sure how Anias and Jadon are recovering for many weeks."
USA Today reported Dr. James Goodrich, who led the surgery, has completed seven such separation surgeries. CNN said the separation surgery was followed by several more hours of work for the skull reconstruction.
A GoFundMe page set up by the parents to defray the cost of medical expenses has raised more than $169,000 as of Friday.
"So we just took a huge leap of faith, but now we are back to taking baby steps," McDonald said on Facebook. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm still frozen in space and time...in the smiles of yesterday morning. I'll be hanging out there until I see those smiles again."
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