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Liliya Miroshnik with her - still grown together - daughters Abigail and Micaela
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- / dpa
They had to separate common veins and brain tissue - and create their own blood supply for both babies: Doctors in California separated conjoined Siamese twins in a 24-hour operation on the head.
The nine-month-old girls, Abigail and Micaela, had grown together at the back of their heads, said the Children's Hospital at Davis University in Northern California.
That makes up only two percent of the already rare cases of fused twins, it said.
30 doctors and helpers were involved in the complex operation on October 23 and 24.
Despite the great risk, the operation went without complications, said the medical team.
Rehearsed the operation with dolls
The doctors had already prepared for the separation operation during the mother's pregnancy and after the girl was born last December and simulated the complicated procedure on dolls and three-dimensional models.
In 2009, the twins Trishna and Krishna, who had also grown together at the head, were separated in a 27-hour operation in Australia.
In the case of the girls who were operated on in California, the children's mother, Liliya Miroshnik, said in an interview that she could not thank the doctors enough.
A video from the hospital shows the 33-year-old with one of the babies in her arms a few days after the operation.
The parents in Sacramento, California already have three sons.
Siamese twins are what medicine describes as an unusual abnormal development in identical twins whose bodies have grown together.
This happens in the early stages of development in the womb.
Some babies have grown together only superficially, others share organs or limbs.
The phenomenon is named after Chang and Eng Bunker, who were born in Siam in 1811 - largely what is now Thailand - and who remained together throughout their lives.
Siamese twins are extremely rare.
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