5 Twins Separated At Birth And How They're Doing Now

Siamese twins have fascinated people for eons. Interest in this bizarre condition, where twins are born physically conjoined, results from the unique fusion of shock and empathy that we immediately feel for these innocent young children.

Luckily, medical science has progressed to a point where many conjoined twins can be successfully separated. The success of these operations is determined to a large extent by the location of the connection between the siblings. For example, if siamese twins share a brain or a heart, the likelihood that both children can be saved is reduced dramatically.

Here is a list of five sets of conjoined twins who have been separated and where they are now.

SHARE this list with your Facebook friends. They need to hear about these amazing children and the doctors who came to their rescue.

1. Meet little Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf who were given a 2% chance of survival at birth.

In 2009, these baby boys from Cork, Ireland were conjoined at the area between the pelvis and chest and were successfully separated after a harrowing 14-hour surgery. After the surgery, their mother, Angie Benhaffaf, said that she was scared she would lose her "little fighters".

Here are the little guys 22 months after the successful separation.

Unfortunately, each twin could only be left with a single leg, but that hasn't stopped these dudes from experiencing what life has to offer.

They were each given a prosthetic leg to supplement their stride.

You have to see these young boys now that they've entered grade school!

Here are Hassan and Hussein six years after their groundbreaking surgery, walking together on their first day of school. 

The young men have matured so much and are doing pretty well at their new school. In an interview, their mother Angela said, "I have to watch them because they're taking off, I never thought I'd say that, that I have to keep up with them." 

The next then-and-now comes from California...

2. In 2007, at the age of two, Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias underwent surgery to be separated after being born conjoined at the heart and sternum.

The operation took place at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University.

Here is an illustration depicting the organs shared between the twins.

Aspects of the liver and right atrium of the heart were conjoined, significantly complicating the 12-hour surgery that required 24 doctors. 

While the girls will likely have heart complications for their entire lives, the surgery was a success.

Here are Yurelia and Fiorella after their surgery. Photos of the separated twins have since surfaced on the internet. So what do they look like now?

Here they are in 2014!

In this picture, the girls were going into 3rd grade. They still receive medical supervision for complications from the surgery, but otherwise, they are doing great!

The next story from Houston, Texas is truly amazing...

3. In 1996, Emily and Caitlin Copeland were born conjoined at the liver and chest. 

Crystal Copeland, the twins' mother, found out during her pregnancy that her daughters were conjoined. After their birth, the doctors found out that only a liver was shared between the twins. This presented an opportunity for doctors to operate.

Here are the twins still conjoined as doctors planned how to separate them.

The final operation took place at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Here are the twins on the cover of H Magazine with Dr. Kevin Lally, who was the lead surgeon.

So the surgery went really well, but where are the twins now??

Here are the girls now, again with Dr. Lally.

You have to hear about what they are up to now. Not only are the twins doing well, they recently graduated as co-valedictorians from their high school and are both involved in sports.

4. Rital and Ritag Gaboura were born in England conjoined at the top of their heads.

This rare condition has a survival rate of roughly 1 in 10 million. Doctors from the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London were able to successfully separate the twin girls 

The twins were connected only by the skull. Brain tissue was not shared between them, a situation lending itself to surgical separation.

Here is a model of the conjoined heads of Ritag and Rital that was used to plan detailed aspects of surgery.

Here the twins are after their surgery!

Look at those smiles. The doctors at Great Ormond did an incredible job and have received praise for their expertise in these types of separation surgeries.

While we haven't had an update beyond 2012 for Rital and Ritag, they have been progressively recovering from their experience.

They've had to wear modified helmets to aid their recovery, but by the looks of it, they are starting to get pretty big! Rital and Ritag are pictured here with their very happy parents Abdelmajeed and Enas.

5. In 2011, Trevor and Timothy Bainomugisha were delivered conjoined at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda.

Similar to the Copeland twins, Trevor and Timothy shared a liver and parts of the chest.

The surgery was complicated so the twins were operated on further at the Wadi El-Neel Hospital in Cairo, Egypt.

This surgery went very well and the twins were successfully separated. Here is one of the twins soon after the surgery.

Here are those boys now!

The boys recently made the news when their mother, Rosette Tusiime, requested money for the boys to get a quality education in Uganda.

SHARE this article with your Facebook friends. They need to see hear about something positive today :)